§ Mr. Winnickasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what is the number of firms that have gone into liquidation in (a) the west midlands and (b) the Black Country area since May 1979; and what is the percentage increase over the five years prior to May 1979.
§ Mr. ButcherI regret that official figures of company liquidations are not available by area. The total number of bankruptcies administered in the years 1979–83 inclusive by county courts in the whole of west midlands county was 1,236 and in the Black Country area 423. The Black Country area is defined as that part of west midlands county covered by the courts in Dudley, Walsall, Wolverhampton and West Bromwich, that is, omitting those in Birmingham, Coventry and Stourbridge.
In both cases, the annual averages were 34 per cent. higher than in the two years 1977–78—comparisons are not given with the previous five years because of a break in continuity at the end of 1976. The figures relate to all individuals and partnerships; for England and Wales as a whole, unincorporated businesses account for between 75 and 80 per cent. of the total. There has of course been, in the four years 1980 to 1983, a net surplus provisionally estimated at 11,000, of business births over deaths.