Personal insolvencies ‘rising across England and Wales’

The number of people facing personal insolvency is increasing throughout England and Wales, it has been claimed.

A new map highlighting the areas most prone to financial struggle has been drawn up by R3.

The insolvency trade body claimed personal insolvencies have escalated by 350 per cent in the last decade and 42 per cent of the current British population are finding it hard to manage their monetary situation.

The investigation showed Torbay on the South West coast heads the list with 470 new personal insolvencies in 2009.

It is followed in second place by Mansfield in Derbyshire – which clocked up 442 new cases – and then Weston-Super-Mare near Bristol, which recorded 424.

At the other end of the scale, the constituency with the lowest number was Wimbledon in London, as it witnessed just 78 cases.

Tooting, Ealing and Sheffield Hallam also had very few instances but the figures come as personal insolvency reaches record levels.

More than 134,000 instances were recorded in England and Wales last year and Steven Law, president of R3, said he expects the numbers to escalate further in the coming years.

The industry figure warned: "Public sector cuts are likely to have an impact in future across the country as businesses [that] rely on those contracts begin to suffer."

ClearDebt recently published a graph showing insolvencies in England over the past 10 years by district.

A recent study carried out by Gocompare.com revealed many people in the UK believe their finances are in a worse position than they were last year.

The investigation found 41 per cent of Brits believe this to be the case and 25 per cent claimed they need to make cutbacks to sustain a decent standard of living.

By James Francis