It's grim up North, but businesses here in the South are booming once more, leaving a “starkly divided nation”, Begbies Traynor’s latest corporate health check revealed today.
The accountancy group’s Red Flag Alert research, which monitors the financial health of Britain’s businesses, reported sharp increases in financial distress among businesses based in the North and among smaller firms, whilst southern-based and larger businesses showed marked improvements in their financial health.
It wasn’t all good news in the South, however. Begbies also found a 10.5% quarter-on-quarter increase in “significant” distress levels amongst small and medium-sized enterprises across Britain, suggesting soaring numbers of “zombie businesses” which are in debt and only just generating enough cash to survive.
Overall, however, firms based in London and the South East witnessed a 7% fall in distress levels in the third quarter to 103,096, driven by recovery in the financial services, media and leisure sectors. That contrasts with a 9% increase in that figure across the UK as a whole.
Ric Traynor, executive chairman at Begbies, said the figures demonstrated “a clear North/South divide in the UK”, and the strength of the London economy with its international nature.
