June Sees Lowest Construction Insolvencies in Five Months

THERE WERE 325 construction insolvencies in June 2025. They comprised 15.6% of all insolvencies in England and Wales and were the lowest number recorded in five months.

According to The Insolvency Service, there were 60 (15.6%) fewer construction insolvencies in June than in May 2025.

By rough comparison, construction firms accounted for 14% of all registered businesses in the UK in 2024.

Again, the largest proportion of construction insolvencies were among firms providing specialised construction activities with 191 recorded – the same number as in May 2025.

Insolvencies among civil engineering firms reached a five-month low at 15.

Quarter-on-Quarter

In Q2,25, construction insolvencies were down 1.2% compared to the previous quarter and a 10.9% fall on Q2,24.

Overall, construction firms accounted for 16.3% of all insolvencies in England and Wales in Q2,25, with 1,037 registered construction businesses becoming insolvent.

Firms classified as providing specialised construction activities experienced the most insolvencies in Q2,25 with 585. This was a 2.1% rise on the previous quarter but a 13.6% decrease on the year.

Year-on-Year

The total number of construction firms becoming insolvent in the 12 months to the end of June 2025 was 3,984. This was a 7.8% decrease on the 4,319 insolvencies recorded in the year to June 2024, and a 23.8% increase on the 3,218 in pre-pandemic 2019.

Of all cases where the industry was captured in the statistics, construction experienced the highest number of insolvencies in the year to June 2025.

The Insolvency Service said while the insolvency rate has increased since the lows seen in 2020 and 2021, it remains much lower than the peak of 113.1 per 10,000 companies seen during the 2008-09 recession. This is because the number of companies on the effective register has more than doubled over this period. The rate in the year to the end of July 2025 was 52.5 per 10,000 companies.

Scotland Insolvencies

In Scotland, there were 65 construction insolvencies in Q2,25.

This was a 47.7% increase on the 44 seen in Q1,25 and the highest quarterly total on record in the last three and a half years of readily available data.

There were 14 construction company insolvencies in Scotland in July 2025, accounting for 12.1% of all insolvencies in the country.

The number of Scottish construction insolvencies for the 12-month period to July 2025 was 194. This was a 7.2% decrease on those seen in the year to June 2024 and a 6.3% fall on the 207 in pre-pandemic 2019.

Within the industry, firms classified as providing specialised construction activities are consistently the most affected across Great Britain. However, analysis shows that their numbers are proportional to their overall share within the construction sector.

This category includes companies providing a range of work, typically on a subcontract basis, from demolition and site preparation to electrical and plumbing installation, and finishing work like plastering, painting and glazing.

Further data released by The Insolvency Service showed that 324, or 26%, of self-employed or trader bankruptcies in the 12 months to May 2025 were in construction in England and Wales.

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