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View Experian business failures by region Jan 2010 in a larger map

Business insolvencies across the UK are falling, in fact they are at the lowest rate since June 2007. That's the good news from Experian today.

Unfortunately for Yorkshire, it is top of the list of failures with nearly double the amount of businesses going under last month compared to virtually every other part of the country. It's closely followed by the North East.


LOSERS
Yorkshire had the highest rate of failures in January
Scotland was the only region to see a year on year increase in insolvency

WINNERS
Wales had the lowest rate of business failures in January
The South West was the most robust, with the best financial strength score in January
The North East lost the ignoble top spot as the region with the highest insolvency rate decreasing 30%

Greater London saw the highest year-on-year improvement in financial health yet had the lowest overall financial strength score of any region.

Another day, and there's another end of year ranking. This times it's Experian's Insolvency Index. And the North East wins the ignoble top spot registering the highest level of insolvencies last year.

It's bad news for Newcastle landlords who've already had to entice occupiers in with ultra competitive deals, including whispers of a rent free of eight years for Tescos at Grantside's Quorum (EGi subscribers can read the full story here).

Nip across the border and Scotland saw the lowest level of insolvencies this year, although that figure seemed to accelerate in December.

Generally, Experian says the average finanical strengh for business in Great Britain improved steadily this year, after insolvencies peaked in the first half of 2009. Mid-sized businesses bore the brunt of the pain with the very large, and the very small avoid calamity more easily.

In London businesses struggled most financially  but, throughout the year the Greater London region showed the biggest improvement.

An easing of conditions for occupiers has fed through to the property industry. There were 144 property insolvencies in December 2009, down 18.6% on December 2008, but, unlike the all industry average the financial strength of the property sector actually dropped (albeit a fairly small amount) - from 84.79 to 83.63. The all industry strength was 81.37.

Click through on the continue reading link below to see the figures for financial strength by industry and insolvency figures by sector.

Click on View image to see larger maps.

So Britain's biggest retailer Tesco, announced its strongest sales for three years today. For it, the big freeze and ensuing panic buying to stock up on storecupboard items can't have hurt. Nor can reports on the BBC's Today programme  that because of the freezing conditions we can't get to the high street sales and, faced with being forced to stay indoors, we're splurging on contraception instead.

But for the rest of the high street it's been less cheery (think of Debenhams warning today and Marks and Spencer's performance last week).

Synovate's retail traffic weathermap (see above) shows there's been lower footfall than forecast for December as wintry weather made shopping trips more difficult meaning there were fewer early bargain hunters.

There's a definite north/south divide with footfall dropping 3% in the midlands and northern england (which covers, the north east, north west Yorkshire and the Humber). In contrast  it rose in London and the south east (4%) and Wales and the south west(nearly 3%).

Nottingham, Derby & Leics
An examination of the three markets, plus statistics
Kurt Jacobs, freelance writer, 07737 360253 kurt.jacobs@tiscali.co.uk

Northants
In depth analysis of the market plus statistics
Kurt Jacobs, freelance writer, 07737 360253 kurt.jacobs@tiscali.co.uk


 

Regeneration big wigs from around the region are off to Wembley today to put forward their case for hosting the 2018 World Cup.

Whether they'll be bombing down the motorways in a team bus, their city colours proudly flying out of the back window is debatable but only one can hit the back of the net and score not just the honour of bringing footie home but the economic boost of 100,000s of visitors.

It was all smiles and rip-roaring speeches today but debates behind the scenes about stadium development have been a little more complex. Clearly many had hoped to have venues already coming out of the ground as part of larger grand regeneration plans which have since hit the buffers.

Amongst the hubris today, little was said about the money to fund them or the developer appetite to deliver them. Below we assess each city in turn and take a look what the local press is saying:

Birmingham: Plans for a City of Birmingham stadium had seemed to wither on the vine. The Birmingham Post reports that these may now be being reignited. It follows a long on, then off again, proposal to build a Super Casino as part of a new stadium. This was eventually abandoned by the council which opted for the NEC as a Super Casino site. before the government kicked all Super Casino plans into the long grass.
 
London: the Olympic Legacy Company was still debating last week whether to retain the Olympic Stadium's 80,000-seat capacity. Paul Norman's Olympics blog says a decision would need to be made shortly.

The relationship between planners and developers has always been a tense one and never more so than in East Scotland it seems.

In Inverness, for example, David Thame looks at the long running row over a new ASDA store in the city and how it has challenged planning policy in the Highlands. Planning policy is also being called into question in Melanie Smith's piece on Perth. The council there quite rightly wants to protect the city centre's retail but not all agree that the policy is working for the best.

Fortunately there are no such planning drama's being played out in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, well not as far as we know, instead Scotland's oil-capital is celebrating opening the doors to it's brand new shopping centre Union Square. Elaine Cavanagh looks at the wider impact the scheme will have on Aberdeen's retail market.

As for the Scottish capital, a planning battle would probably be a welcome distraction at the moment. Melanie Clarkson finds a city that is licking the wounds of recession and generally feeling sorry for itself as rival Glasgow seems to be snagging all the best deals.

And don't even mention the state of Princes Street where retail rents have dropped by more than 10% in the past year.

But East Scotland isn't our only Focus Lisa Pilkington our Midlands editor and blogger is looking at the East Midlands in tomorrow's mag too. For a sneak head over to her blog by clicking here

Focus heads to my old stomping ground - the East Midlands - over the next few weeks. And while my home county of Rutland probably isn't going to feature that highly, the key markets of Nottingham, Derby, Leicester, Lincoln and Northampton are so if these are you areas of interest get in touch with the writers. Oh and please take five minutes to fill in our sentiment survey, we want to see if people are feeling any more positive than when we last quizzed them in May.

 

EAST MIDLANDS FOCUS
 PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 7, 2009

Sentiment Survey
An update on the Sentiment Survey carried out in May this year tracking sentiment about the property market and wider economy. To take part in the survey click here. The survey is anonymous and takes about 5 minutes. If you wish to send an attributable quote on issues raised in the survey for possible inclusion please contact:
Lisa Pilkington, Midlands editor, 07771 673 458, Lisa.pilkington@rbi.co.uk

Market round up
Investigation of the office, retail and industrial markets across the county, and what can local property people expect looking to the future?
Contact:  Elaine Cavanagh, freelancer 01225 444 875, Elaine@jackcav.freeserve.co.uk

 Deadline for receipt of editorial information is 12 October, 2009 

EG's Midlands Editor Lisa Pilkington has her own blog where you can follow all the latest news from her travels around the region.