MORE than 1,500 Swindon businesses are struggling with money problems.

New figures from Begbies Traynor's Red Flag Alert, which monitors the financial health of British companies, shows that 1,650 businesses in the town are finding it hard to make ends meet at the moment.

This is five per cent more than in the second quarter of this year, and four per cent more than last year.

Construction businesses are the most affected, with 272 companies in significant financial distress during the past three months, and the number of bars and restaurants in difficulty has jumped by a fifth.

Nationally, the latest Red Flag Alert research for Q3 2022 recorded almost 610,000 businesses in significant distress, with companies faltering in a time of rising costs and fragile confidence.

The data paints a worrying picture for UK businesses as a growing number are now falling victim to exceptional economic pressures.

The number of County Court Judgements in the first nine months of this year was 63,831 - which is more than in all of 2021 or 2020. 

Similarly, winding up petitions - a more serious action lodged by creditors - were 237 per cent higher than the same period in 2021, showing that companies are using major legal enforcement measures to recoup debts.

Julie Palmer is a partner at Begbies Traynor in Swindon. She said: “We are in economically turbulent times, where businesses are being battered on multiple fronts by increasing costs in energy, raw materials, and labour.

"Coupled with the increased cost of borrowing and the prospect of rising corporation tax now around the corner, this is a very challenging time to be in business.

“The economy, which had already been weakened by two years of pandemic disruption, now faces the very real possibility of a recession at a time when businesses were in desperate need of a sustained period of stability so they could get back on their feet.

“What we have instead is a situation where input costs are soaring and businesses that borrowed to survive for years and are stuck with levels of debt that they may be unable repay.

“We’d urge company directors and business owners who are worried about their ability to trade through this difficult period to seek professional advice in order to understand what steps they might be able to take to put them on a stronger footing.”