Things we'd like Andy Burnham to do

Andy Burnham is set to be the new UK Prime Minister soon and with him will be a new team - including more than likely a new Chancellor next door. We can only hope that the new PM fresh from his job in Manchester will introduce some of the policies he's enacted in the north and those he's talked about so far. 

These include the reform of business rates with some businesses in the High Street exempt to increase footfall and more power devolved to Mayors and Councils so they can set fairer rates with an eye to charge out of town warehouses and shopping centres more. One of his more eye-catching ideas is a Number 10 of the North to even up living standards in the regions by improving infrastructure such as rail links, roads and public services such as hospitals. He's mentioned taxing the super rich and the well off more - and ICSM would like to see some of the firms like Amazon pay their fair share instead of hiding their tax affairs abroad - when local SMEs, sole traders, independent shops and pubs and restaurants pay far too much.

He's touted bringing utilities like rail, water and power back into public ownership - we have charted how the energy market became a Wild West with dozens of firms going bust leaving staff and suppliers high and dry. Then there is Thames Water with its debt mountain it can never repay. Sewage in rivers and the sea, householders and businesses sometimes left without water as its infrastructure is not invested in - and suppliers and contractors wondering if they will be paid if it goes bust. Thames Water is an obvious item on the PM's to do list.

Burnham has said he'd like the UK to rejoin the EU if the terms are right within his lifetime. If he means within his political lifetime that would be by around 2036 which is closer than we think - and if the terms are fair then most businesses would welcome it - but there's a lot of politics to be tackled if that was to happen.

Burnham has promised a large scale increase in building council houses - something builders will welcome along with all trades associated with fitting out homes. He's emphasised "sovereign manufacturing" making things like steel, defence, energy, and farming kept in this country. ICSM would like to see ship building, trains designed and built here along with more car and truck makers kept within our shores. And there's massive infrastructure legacy projects such as HS2 - which would make sense to complete all the way to Scotland and ideally Wales and Cornwall, the expansion of Heathrow, Gatwick, Bristol and other airports, the duelling of the A303, the lower Thames crossing - the list goes on but they would all add to an economic boom locally. It's just how they would be paid for is the question most people will ask.

And finally a tightening of the rules over insolvency,  the abuse of pre-packs, insolvency practitioners' relationships with former directors looking to buy back a firm, late payment by customers who see it as free credit at the expense of their suppliers and more staff and investment into the small claims courts and the backlog of legal cases where clients have defaulted on payment. 

At ICSM we have spent five decades in helping members get paid on time and chasing up bad debts on their behalf through our debt collection service. Each decade has brought new challenges for honest businesses trying to get paid and managing a healthy cash flow - with our FREE legal letters, our FREE micro debt service and our highly efficient and diplomatic debt collection service we do our best for a variety of business sectors.

Governments have come and gone and they rarely help SMEs, sole traders, freelancers and independent high street shops - so we can only hope that this time it will be different when 'the King of the North' enters Downing Street.

Have a good summer,
Kind regards
Ian Carrotte
Proprietor
ICSM CREDIT
For information on ICSM visit www.icsmcredit.com or call 0844 854 1850.
ICSM, The Exchange, Express Park, Bristol Road, Bridgwater, Somerset TA6 4RR. Tel: 0844 854 1850. www.icsmcredit.com. Ian.carrotte@icsmcredit.com
For details about ICSM Credit call 0844 854 1850 or visit the website www.icsmcredit.com or email Ian at Ian.carrotte@icsmcredit.com


 
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NEWS
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See out website www.icsmcredit.com for more detailed news, views and features - but here are the latest headlines:

Printing and Allied Trades
The World Cup has provided a welcome boost for newspapers and football magazines as well as the publishing of posters, stickers and special supplements. But aside from the World Cup newspapers have continued to see circulations fall. In the latest ABC figures published in the Press Gazette with the Sunday People seeing the largest decline dropping 25% year on year. Other newspapers saw double digit drops in the previous 12 months with The Sunday Mirror, the Sunday Express and Sunday Mail all down in the region of 20%.
Also in the news the Glossop based promotion print product firm Adco Products has gone bust while the Yorkshire based web and sheetfed printing firm Vanacomm in Wath upon Dearne that went out of business in April has failed to pay the staff wages with also doubts over pension contributions. Print Week’s Hannah Davenport has reported on the liquidation of Dundee print outfit Creative Graffix. And Print Week has also reported that Aylesbury high-volume mailing house GB Mail has ceased trading and is set to be placed into voluntary liquidation.

Logistics and Couriers
With oil prices hiked for weeks during the Iran-US/Israel war hauliers and logistics in general have taken a hit - and although some oil is now flowing again it will take months if peace holds for prices to be back to normal. Chris Tindall of Motor Transport has reported that Lutterworth, Leicestershire-based Mallock filed its intention to appoint administrators last month before insolvency experts at Exigen Group took control of the freight transport company on 12 June. He also reported that Trans Haul (Europe) has filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators, according to a Companies Court filing and that St Albans and Iver-based plant and vehicle rental firm Gradewell Plant & Haulage has entered administration after HM Revenue & Customs served a winding-up petition on it. Insolvencies in the sector have risen year on year the trade publication reported - accelerated by the increase in fuel costs.

Homes and Gardens
The fall out from the collapsed of Homebase has become known after the administrators revealed it owed £800,000 after creditors were paid. Administrators Teneo Financial Advisory said there would be no money left for unsecured creditors. The Range, B&Q and Wilko took on many of the stores along with some of the staff although the administrators said 2,300 workers were made redundant, with nearly one million pounds in unpaid wages. The Original Factory Shop, acquired by Modella in 2025 had 1,200 employees and 122 stores, before going into adminstration in January 2026. All the Company stores are closing.
Food and Drink
The self-styled punk disrupter of the brewing industry Brewdog has been sold to US firm Tilray for £33m after it went into administration. Only 11 of its bars have been saved in the deal while 38 others were closed and 484 staff have been made redundant. Founder James Watt claimed he was 'heartbroken' but those who invested in the firm's Equity for Punks scheme which raised £75m will not receive a penny and will no doubt be rather more ‘heartbroken.’
Travel, Hospitality, Holidays
When a buyer wasn’t found for the Nottingham Belfry Hotel and Spa in January administrators Ian Corfield and Anthony Simmons of FRP Advisory closed the business. The 120 staff were made redundant and the remaining guests told to leave while those seeking to check in were left fuming as their bookings were cancelled and they were shown the door.
In June the The Quayside Hotel (Company Number 13383595) in Brixham in Devon entered administration, while in May The Bull Auberge (Company Number 13776834) in Yaxley in Suffolk also entered administration. The holiday boat firm Beacon Park Boats (Company Number 05595742) of Llangattock, Crickhowell, Powys entered administration in June while two travel agents went bust and entered administration this spring: Tripsmiths of London (Company Number 10502015) and in Batheaston near Bath Groupia entered administration. The firm specialised in group holidays, trips and experiences from golfing weekends to school trips and stag and hen nights with a side range of customers.

Construction
Writing for the website and trade journal Building Carl Brown broke the news in June that Devonshire Homes Ltd entered administration. He added: "Sarah Collins and Jonathan Marston of Alvarez & Marsal Europe have been appointed joint administrators of the £52m turnover housebuilder, which had previously issued a notice of intention to appoint an administrator. Devonshire, according to its most recently published accounts for the year to 30 September 2024, employed 77 members of staff. It was set up in the early 1990s."

The publication added: "The administrators cited two projects under construction included in the administration. They are the 225-home The Grange in Bideford, and St Michael’s Reach in Penzance, which was set to deliver 320 homes.The administrator said the action relates solely to Devonshire Homes Ltd and other Devonshire branded-developments or associated companies are not effected."

The Wembley based firm C.V. A.C LIMITED (Company Number 11370609) entered administration in July, 2026, while in June Hodson Developments (CG three) Ltd (Company Number 10982329) of London also entered administration.

Education and Training
A number of private schools have gone bust this year as pupil numbers drop due to a rise in fees after the Chancellor approved VAT to be charged to the institutions although it has been reported that asset strippers have bought at least two schools in order to close them and develop the sites. The Independent newspaper reported: "Durham High School in Durham and Ruthin School in Denbighshire, North Wales, (pictured) will not reopen to pupils after the end of the academic term in July, both schools confirmed in statements this week.The schools are owned by Chinese company Galaxy Global Education, which was accused of asset-stripping in April after it closed another private school in Worcestershire."
Health, Social Care
The Daily Mirror reported this month: "Lillibet House, based in Bedfordshire, was placed in special measures by the Care Quality Commission [CQC] following an inspection in July and August last year." The firm has since appointed administrators to liquidate the home. Carehome.co.uk has reported that: "The number of care homes for elderly people and those with dementia in the UK fell during 2022. The biggest drop was in England and Wales. Figures from carehome.co.uk, which lists all registered care homes, show that at the start of January 2022, there were 12,472 registered care homes in the UK. By the end of the year, this had dropped to 12,281, with a loss of 191 care homes."

High Street, Retail and Sales

It’s not the first time the fashion chain Quiz has entered administration but this time it looks like curtains for the store founded in 1993. Known as the coming-of-age store for teenage girls Claire's accessories has again entered administration just weeks after the business had been rescued from collapse last year. Upmarket fashion retailer LK Bennett is to close all its standalone stores after going into administration despite investment firm Gordon Brothers buying the brand. To compound the high street’s problems they didn’t want the shops and staff. There are nine standalone shops and 13 department store concessions.

Professional and Finance
Worcester Warriors went bust in 2022 and dropped out of the Premiership as a result after failing to pay bills and were wound up in the High Court by the Inland Revenue owing around £25m. Atlas group have been involved in buying the club but there has been a number of issues and in May the club changed hands in a pre-pack deal to Junction 6 Limited. With no rugby for 18 months the club now hope to play in the new look Championship (tier 2 of the rugby pyramid) next season. It is worth noting that the club owed hundreds of thousands of pounds to local businesses when it collapsed.

Utilities
The bigger they are the harder they fall. That’s certainly the case of Thames Water, the once mighty utility privatised in 1989 by the Conservative Government with no debt and now on the brink of collapse with its credit rating reduced to junk. Owing some £15bn in debt it has little or no chance of borrowing its way out of trouble with the most likely outcome being some form of nationalisation. Something that now seems likely under an Andy Burnham administration.

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Types of Insolvency
Administration
Administration applies to limited companies and partnerships and is intended to get the company out of trouble and trading again if possible. Administrators can be appointed to a company that is unable, or is likely to become unable, to pay its debts. They can be appointed by the courts (on application from a creditor, directors or partners), the holder of a qualifying floating charge over the assets of the business, or the company or its directors. An administrator's primary goal is to rescue the company as a going concern. If this isn't possible, the administrator will try to get a better result for the creditors than would be possible if the company was wound up. If neither of these is possible, the administrator will sell the company's property to make at least a partial payment to one or more secured or preferential creditors, such as employees or the bank.
Administrators Meetings Para 51
This statement by the administrator of his proposals must be accompanied by an invitation to an initial creditors' meeting (Sch B1, para 51(1)).
Bankruptcy
This can only apply to individuals (including sole traders and individual members of a partnership). Bankruptcy petitions may be presented to the court by the individual, by creditors who are owed £750 or more, or by the supervisor of an individual voluntary arrangement. A bankruptcy order is made by the court.
Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA)
A company comes to an arrangement with its creditors to pay the debts in full or in part over time. A CVA begins with the company (or its adviser) drafting a formal proposal at a Creditors' Meeting to pay part or all of the debts. If the proposal is accepted by the creditors, the arrangement will become legally binding and the directors will retain control of the company.
Compulsory Liquidation
This is the winding up of a company or a partnership by a court order (a winding up order). A petition is normally presented to the court by a creditor stating that he or she is owed a sum of money by the company and that the company cannot pay.
The Official Receiver becomes liquidator when the order is made but an Insolvency Practitioner will be appointed to take over if the company has significant assets. The liquidator's role is to realise the company's assets, pay all the fees and charges arising from the liquidation, and pay the creditors as far as funds allow in a strict order of priority.
Compulsory Liquidators Appointed S 136
When a winding-up order has been made, the Official Receiver is initially appointed as liquidator (section 136, IA 1986). The company's creditors and contributories may appoint another individual, who must be a registered insolvency practitioner, to act as liquidator (section 139, IA 1986). More than one liquidator can be appointed to act jointly.
Creditors' Voluntary Liquidation
Here the shareholders pass a resolution to wind the company up without the need for a court order. A Creditors' Meeting is held to nominate the appointment of a liquidator and consider a statement of affairs. Creditors can appoint a committee to work with the liquidator, whose role is to realise the company's assets, pay all the fees and charges arising from the liquidation, and pay the creditors as far as funds allow in a strict order of priority.
Creditors' Voluntary Liquidation Deemed in Consent Meeting
Creditors are now 'deemed to have consented' to a decision or resolution if 10% of creditors (by value) have not objected to it. In other words, if objections are not received by the specified decision date, creditors are 'deemed to have consented' to the decision or resolution.
Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA)
An individual comes to an arrangement with creditors to pay his/her debts in full or in part over time as an alternative to bankruptcy. The arrangement is set up by a licensed Insolvency Practitioner who will put it to a meeting of creditors. If the proposal is accepted at the meeting, the agreement reached with the creditors will be legally binding. An Interim Order is sometimes issued by a court and will immediately protect the debtor from any legal action by creditors.
Petitions to Wind Up
A winding up petition is a legal notice put forward to the court by a creditor. The application, in effect, asks the court to liquidate the company as they believe the company is insolvent. Proceeds of the liquidation can be used to pay back creditors.
Secretary of State
The Secretary of State may appoint an insolvency practitioner as liquidator or trustee as an alternative to holding a meeting of creditors in certain circumstances.