Record UK Business Distress Meets Budget Promises

BTG counted 738,144 UK businesses in “significant” financial distress in the third quarter of 2026, the highest figure since the company began its research in 2004. The report arrives as businesses call for relief from costs and Chancellor John Healey promises families and firms “breathing space” in Wednesday’s Budget. The figures show how little room many businesses say they have left before the government sets out its plans.

The pressure before the Budget

The number of businesses in significant distress was 1.6% higher than in the same period a year earlier. BTG’s measure draws on signals from business accounts and legal and financial data, indicating deteriorating financial health. Of the 22 sectors the company monitored, 20 recorded an increase.

The pressure was particularly sharp in property and construction. Significant distress in real estate and property rose by a tenth year on year to almost 100,000 businesses. Construction distress increased by almost 5% to 108,340. Among businesses that depend on customers spending directly, distress rose by 5% for bars and restaurants and 7% for food and drug retailers ahead of Christmas.

The report also recorded a different measure moving in the opposite direction: critical financial distress fell by nearly 21% from the same period a year earlier, to 44,033 businesses. Julie Palmer, BTG’s managing partner, said: “Record levels of ‘significant’ financial distress underline just how many businesses are approaching the autumn Budget with limited financial headroom.” Firms want clarity on taxation and economic policy, she said, while many pressures extend beyond any single Budget announcement.

Palmer named consumer-facing industries, particularly leisure and hospitality, as her “real concern” before Christmas. Inflation was rising in the UK, and energy bills were due to rise further in January as the effects of the Middle East energy shock fed into the cost of living. BTG group chief executive Mark Fry said businesses were asking whether the Budget could “support confidence and encourage investment against a backdrop of persistent inflation and elevated interest rates.” He listed structural hurdles, red tape, employment legislation, the tax burden, and high interest and energy costs. “It is by no means an easy task,” he said.

Promises, polling and public attention

A New Statesman article dated Oct. 27 reported Opinium polling on awareness of Andy Burnham’s announcement of a crackdown on people playing loud music or videos on public transport. Sixty-eight per cent of Britons were aware of the announcement, compared with 72 per cent for Storm Austen, which ripped up trees across Britain, and 33 per cent for Phil Foden scoring a hat-trick for Manchester City.

The article said there had been next to no change over the previous year in the share of voters optimistic about their finances or the British economy. Against that backdrop, it described the public response to Burnham’s announcement as surprising. The polling gives no indication that awareness of the announcement shifted that broader lack of optimism.

Evidence from the witness box

At Southwark Crown Court, Helen Berger, Russell Brand’s former personal assistant, told jurors that Brand asked her to obtain phone numbers for female fans. Berger said the request made her feel “really weird” and that she later told him she would not do it again. She worked for Brand from June 2006 to February 2007 and described the role as “one of the hardest jobs I did.”

Berger said Brand was always in his underwear when she visited his flat, and described his behaviour as “normalised.” In a statement read to the court by prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC, she said: “When I went to Russell’s flat he was always in his underwear as he loved walking around in his underwear with no shirt on.” Berger also said she had never witnessed Brand doing anything against the law. “Though I had worked with celebrities before and seen a lot of people normalising bad behaviour, this was on another level,” she told the court.

Brand denies three charges of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one allegation of indecent assault involving alleged attacks against six women between 1999 and 2009. The trial was continuing on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026.