Hunch. Compulsory liquidations, which creditors such as HMRC seek in court, rose to 341 in September, 25% more than a year before.
The compulsory liquidations market resolves on the same release: YES if compulsory liquidations in England and Wales for October 2026 are above the October 2025 figure in that same release (317 in the September release), and NO if they are below. A tie is void, and The Guardian and BBC News together settle it if the GOV.UK page does not open.
We looked for cases where the UK government presented a Budget or a similar statement that cut taxes or costs for business, and checked company insolvencies in England and Wales for that month. We found seven such months since 2022. Each time we checked how far the first official count moved from the month before.