By David Boulton, Managing Director, BPI
The latest Company Insolvency Statistics for December 2025 showed a slight slowdown. The figures, published by the UK Insolvency Service, suggest fewer companies entered insolvency compared with the previous month and the same time last year.
On paper, that looks encouraging.
From the auction market, it doesn’t feel like much has changed.
December often brings a pause in formal activity. Appointments slow, decisions get pushed into the new year, and everything feels a little quieter. But that doesn’t mean the pressure has gone away. It just means it’s sitting in the background.
From where I sit, insolvency is still very much shaping the flow of work. What’s changed isn’t whether businesses fail, but how they do.
More and more, companies are failing later, but when they fail, they fail fast.
We’re seeing businesses hold on for as long as possible. Cash gets stretched, relationships with creditors get tighter, and difficult decisions get delayed. By the time action is taken, there’s often very little breathing space left.
When things finally tip, they move quickly.
That has a real impact on assets. Values are tighter. Timelines are shorter. There’s less room for trial and error. What might once have been a phased wind-down now becomes a rapid move to clarity.
From an auction point of view, that changes the nature of instructions we receive.
Assets don’t arrive slowly anymore. We’re more likely to see whole sites, fleets, machinery and stock coming to market together, often late in the process and with a clear expectation that things need to move quickly.
At the same time, conversations are starting earlier. Directors and advisers are picking up the phone sooner, not always because they’re ready to sell, but because they want to understand where they stand before time runs out.
That shift says a lot about the current environment. There’s a greater emphasis on structure, pace, and clarity, particularly when situations start to tighten.
In that context, auctions play a slightly different role than they once did.
They’re not just about disposal. They’re about bringing clarity and structure when decisions need to be made quickly.
An auction provides a clear answer to a simple question: what is this worth now? It does that transparently, within a defined timeframe, and in a way that stands up to scrutiny. When things are moving quickly, that clarity really matters.
What’s also worth saying is that demand hasn’t disappeared. When assets are priced realistically and brought to market properly, buyers are still there. Insolvency doesn’t automatically mean poor quality, and the market is generally very good at spotting value when it’s presented clearly.
That’s something we see time and again at BPI, supported by the valuation and advisory work of BPI Asset Advisory. Often, the most important part of the process happens before anything goes to sale, getting expectations aligned early, while there’s still time to make good decisions.
There’s also been a noticeable change in attitude over the past few years.
Liquidation doesn’t carry the same stigma it once did. But expectations around transparency, fairness and how things are handled have risen sharply. When businesses fail later and faster, the way insolvency is managed becomes just as important as the outcome itself.
So, while December’s figures may suggest a brief slowdown, they don’t tell the whole story.
From where I sit, insolvency will continue to be a major driver of auction activity in 2026. Not because conditions are suddenly worse, but because pressure has been building steadily for a long time.
The real challenge for businesses now isn’t just avoiding failure. It’s recognising when time is running out and acting while there are still choices on the table.
Handled well, auctions can still bring clarity and value, even when things move faster than anyone expected.
