Retail insolvencies on the rise

The high street is facing a summer of woe, with the wet weather leading to a rise in retail bankruptcy, a survey suggested today.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) has said it saw a 10.3 percent rise in the number of high street stores going under over the past three months from April to June.

This was a total of around 426 retailers going bust with large players such as Clinton Cards and Game becoming victims.

However, the accountancy firm pointed out that the number of corporate insolvencies fell by three percent year on year to under 4,000.

The company pointed out there had been a reduction in the number of bankruptcies over the current recession compared to those of the past. However, it was retail that always drew the short straw.

It added that as well as the wet weather the fact that many retailers had too many high street stores, contributed to the problem as well, pointing out that many of us were flocking online to stores such as Amazon.

The biggest increase in the overall number of insolvencies was in the north-east and Cumbria which were up 70 per cent to 277.

Construction and manufacturing saw the number of insolvencies in their sectors decreasing by three percent over the previous year.