According to BBC news, a bankruptcies and IVAs are more likely to be taken out in the M4 corridor and the towns of the English Riviera than anywhere else.
There is a north-south divide in Britain – but it's not necessarily the one you're thinking of. The affluent South-West of England, sometimes called the English Riviera, is the UK's individual voluntary arrangement (IVA) and bankruptcy hotspot according to research commissioned for the BBC.
Six of the ten towns recording the highest level of IVA and bankruptcy applications per head of population are all based in the region.
IVA and bankruptcy hotspots
Torquay has the highest proportion of bankruptcies in the UK, closely followed by Plymouth, Newton Abbot, Barnstaple, Weymouth and Truro.
The chairman of the South West chamber of commerce claimed this was due to a higher proportion of sole traders in the region, and the fact that places like Torquay are seasonal and rely on their summer earnings to get them through the rest of the year.
This argument doesn't explain why other seasonal resorts like Blackpool in Lancashire and Scarborough or Bridlington in Yorkshire aren't as high on the IVA and bankruptcy league tables as the towns in the south-west.
IVAs most common in M4 corridor
Meanwhile, the "M4 corridor" provides the highest prevalence of IVA use in the UK. The town of Aldershot, in Hampshire, is top of the UK's IVA league table.
However, the traditional north-south divide looms large when the picture is looked at without IVA and bankruptcy figures.
The study, undertaken by credit reference agency Experian, revealed that financial stress is worth in the north of England and Scotland, with Manchester and Glasgow singled out as particularly bad cases, followed by Knowsley, Middlesbrough, Hull and Liverpool.
IVA could ease stress burdens
Experian's findings may suggest that increased use of tools like the IVA to manage debt crises may ease the stress burdens that can be caused by debt and financial hardship.
At the other end of the scale – and perhaps unsurprisingly – the ten locations that use the IVA and bankruptcy the least were all in London and the South-East.
Talk to Varden Nuttall about an IVA
Varden Nuttall has been established for more than 15 years and is dedicated to helping people in financial difficulty find a debt management solution through an IVA. We employ 90 people, including trained and skilled IVA administrators, and are one of the largest IVA companies in the UK, where we handle more than three per cent of all individual voluntary arrangement applications. To find out more about the company, or to make an appointment to talk about putting an IVA in place, call us today on 0800 031 9802 or fill in our online enquiry form.