Hospitality insolvencies drops to 26% in December 2025
This marks the lowest monthly level in two years.
Insolvencies in the accommodation and food services sector fell 26% to 204 in December 2025 from 276 in November, marking the lowest monthly level in two years, according to RSM UK.
Compared with December 2024, insolvencies were down 9% year-on-year, from 224.
Saxon Moseley, partner and head of leisure and hospitality at RSM UK, said the drop reflects operators holding on to benefit from festive trade ahead of typically slower months.
He added that the poor weather in early 2026 has prompted some businesses to offer deeper discounts, but rising costs—from changes to business rates and the National Minimum Wage to the Employment Rights Act—could strain firms further.
“As a result, we expect this dip in insolvencies to be short-lived,” Moseley said.
However, independent data from the Buchler Phillips Hospitality Index indicates that financial pressure in the hospitality sector remains high.
Government figures show that 1,706 accommodation and food service businesses—including hotels, restaurants, and pubs—entered insolvency in the first half of 2025.
The second quarter saw a 6.5% rise over the first, with 880 companies affected.
The Buchler Phillips Index, which has tracked monthly hospitality insolvencies since January 2014, climbed from 181.2 in March to 197.3 in June.
It previously hit a peak of 273.4 in August 2023, when the sector experienced a sharp surge in business closures.
