Scottish accountants prepare for business insolvencies

Date: 21st August 2008

Accountants in Scotland are preparing to have to help more small businesses declare themselves insolvent in the coming months.

The Edinburgh Evening News reported that some Scottish accountancy and insolvency firms are already taking on extra staff as they prepare for a spike in the number of small businesses going under in the next year.

Edinburgh-based accountant Johnston Carmichael told the paper that it was moving to a larger office and had expanded its staff by 40 per cent in readiness.

Matt Henderson, an insolvency practitioner with the firm, said to the paper: "We believe spring 2009 will be the peak and we are expanding accordingly.

"I, and also members of my staff, have had a lot more calls from recruitment consultants than usual, suggesting other firms are doing the same and that there are more jobs around."

The experts suggested that the joint impacts of tighter bank lending rules, increasing raw material costs and lower customer demand will all have an impact on business insolvency rates.

Recently, the Insolvency Service published figures that showed that there were 3,560 compulsory liquidations and creditor's voluntary liquidations in total in England and Wales in the second quarter of 2008.