Construction recorded more company insolvencies than any other industry in England and Wales over the past year, despite a modest fall in failures.
Insolvency Service figures show 3,866 construction companies entered insolvency in the 12 months to August 2026. That was 2% fewer than in the previous 12 months, but still accounted for 17% of all cases where an industry was recorded.
August alone saw 294 construction insolvencies, compared with 292 in the same month last year.
Specialist contractors accounted for 164 of August’s cases, or nearly 56% of the construction total. However, failures in the “specialised construction activities” category were down from 179 a year earlier, according to RSM UK’s analysis.
For scaffolding and access businesses, the breakdown offers a picture of the wider contracting market. It does not establish whether insolvencies among scaffolding firms themselves are rising or falling.
Kelly Boorman, head of construction at RSM UK, said uncertainty over future workloads, infrastructure spending and financing continued to weigh on the sector.
She pointed to weaker private housing demand and cuts to major developers’ housebuilding targets, with pressure on project viability feeding through the supply chain. Clearer spending commitments and access to affordable debt would help businesses plan, she said.
The annual decline is encouraging, but does not by itself establish a sustained recovery. The Insolvency Service also cautions that industry totals are provisional and that a higher number of failures does not necessarily mean a higher risk of insolvency, because sectors differ in size.
