There have been more than 5,000 cases  of insolvencies in construction since Q2 2011 PwC figures reveal, although the sector did see a fall in the last quarter.

Construction is one of the worst affected out of all industry areas and despite a less aggressive quarter the sector saw more than 600 insolvencies between January and March.

Construction  saw a 5% fall in its insolvencies from 658 to 625 nationwide, compared to the previous quarter. London remains the region with the highest number, 103 and over the two year period has seen 977 insolvency cases overall.  Of the 5,500 overall construction insolvencies for the entire two year period 1,488 involved general construction/civil engineering firms and 378 involved architectural firms.

Regionally, most places saw a decrease apart from North East & Cumbria (up 27.5%) and the North West which went up 14.8%.

Jonathan Hook, PwC’s Engineering & Construction leader, said: ”Any reduction in the number of insolvencies in the construction sector is welcome. The sector in the UK is still experiencing declining output year on year however, so we are not necessarily over the worst yet in terms of insolvencies.  There is an ongoing cash squeeze throughout the supply chain as has been evidenced in recent reported results.

“The measures in the recent budget to support infrastructure, and in particular levels of house-building  are welcome but will take a little while to feed through into output.”