The number of businesses going into liquidation has increased by 83% since 2019.

With the pandemic, and the cost of living crisis troubling the economy in recent years, its impact on companies heading into insolvency can now be assessed thanks to new data.

Figures from the BBC Shared Data unit reveal that in 2019 just 78 Cheshire East businesses went into liquidation.

This actually fell to 49 in 2020, before increasing again to 84 in 2021.

In 2022, 143 companies went into liquidation despite it being a year of zero COVID restrictions, but was a year of high inflation.

This means 354 companies have gone into liquidation from 2019-2022.

2023 figures, and more specific ones for Macclesfield, are currently unavailable.

However, Cheshire East fared lightly compared to our neighbouring authority of Cheshire West and Chester, which saw a 125% increase in liquidated businesses over the same period.

The UK national total of liquidated businesses from 2019 to 2022 was 6177, with the average increase being 59% over those years, meaning both Cheshire Councils were above average.

On a regional level, the East of England saw the biggest rise of 78%, closely followed by the North West. The South West of England saw the smallest at 31%. However every region in England saw a rise comparing the two years.

Comparing the four nations, Scotland saw the biggest rise of 150%.

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