UK Construction Insolvency Statistics
UK Insolvency Service data is the single hardest evidence base in this vault for the insolvency strand of the Construction Payment Problem — official, consistent, and not vendor-published. It quantifies how exposed the construction supply chain is to Contractor Insolvency and Subcontractor Risk, and it does so for a market (the United Kingdom) that already has prompt payment law and adjudication.
UK Construction Insolvency Statistics [provides_evidence_for] Contractor Insolvency and Subcontractor Risk UK Construction Insolvency Statistics [supports] Construction Payment Problem
The headline figures are stark. Construction accounts for only about 6–7% of UK gross value added but is responsible for almost 17% of all company insolvencies (4,032 of 23,879 in 2024) — and it has led every UK industry for insolvencies four years running. Annual construction insolvencies were 3,217 in 2019 (pre-Covid), rose to 4,388 in 2023, eased to 4,032 in 2024 and roughly 3,931 in 2025 — still about 21–23% above pre-pandemic levels. The insolvency rate was around 52.6 per 10,000 companies in the year to August 2025.
UK Construction Insolvency Statistics [provides_evidence_for] United Kingdom
Two breakdowns matter for the vault’s thesis. First, specialist trade subcontractors are the majority of collapses — the firms at the base of the Construction Payment Pyramid fail most often, consistent with the argument that payment risk concentrates downward. Second, the distress is climbing the chain: 14 UK-listed construction firms issued profit warnings in Q1–Q3 2025, nearly three times the 2024 level, and analysts (EY) warned that even large, better-buffered contractors are under stress — which then endangers the smaller subcontractors in their supply chains, exactly the ISG and Carillion mechanism. The data shows the payment problem is not abating to a comfortable baseline even in a well-regulated market.
UK Construction Insolvency Statistics [relates] ISG Ltd
Connections
- Contractor Insolvency and Subcontractor Risk — quantifies the insolvency strand, source: 2025
- United Kingdom — the market measured, source: 2025
- Construction Payment Pyramid — specialist subcontractors fail most, source: 2026
- ISG Ltd — a major 2024 data point in the series, source: 2024
- Construction Payment Problem — hard official evidence for it, source: 2025