Company insolvencies have fallen to their lowest level in more than 30 years, with businesses kept afloat by Covid loans.
The number of businesses declared insolvent sank to 2,384 in the first quarter of 2021 from 3,053 in the final three months of 2020, the lowest number in seasonally adjusted data that goes back to the first quarter of 2011.
Longer-running figures that are not seasonally adjusted show the lowest number of insolvencies since the third quarter of 1989, according to official data from The Insolvency Service.
The emergency loan programmes have closed and businesses must start repayments within the next six months. Small companies have up to ten years to pay the money back.
