Luminar, the nightclub chain who were recently facing administration and the potential of losing up to 3,000 jobs, has been saved from going under by industry veteran and former Luminar managing director, Peter Marks.

He joined up with Alex Geffert of Ice Planet and entrepreneur and nightclub owner Joe Heanen and together they bought out the 64 strong nightclub chain that fell into administration after a winding up order from HMRC.

Luckily there was no need for an insolvency practitioner to come in where Luminar were concerned, as they had already put into administration. They fell into administration in October with debts of around £85m and with 3,000 jobs hanging in the balance this almost certainly looks like a good move for the company.

The group are supposed to be considering running the nightclubs over the Christmas period and then assessing the situation and putting the ones which are “bottom-end” units on the market.

Speaking about the future of Luminar, Mr Marks said: “Luminar has a lot of good people and with hard work, the right financial structure and an investment programme the company can look forward to a great future,”

If you would like to find out more about what happens when a company goes into administration, or if they are facing it then you should pay a visit to the Real Business Recovery website and see what they can do to help you!

Yet more bleak news for the British high street, discount clothes chain Peacocks is set to close up to 200 stores nationwide. The closures are being discussed by the big wigs at Peacocks as a part of a broad restructuring plan which is to essentially ensure that the running of the company is safeguarded for the future.

There are meetings taking place with the major shareholders of Peacocks, the likes of Goldman Sachs, in an attempt to restructure the company’s debts and come to some kind of agreement, also known as a CVA.

One thing they should look at avoiding is receiving a statutory demand. This is effectively the first step to bankruptcy against an individual or a company. If you would still like to read more about things like this then you should look at paying a visit to the Real Business Recovery site and you will almost certainly find all of the information you need there.

Speaking on what is currently going on with Peacocks, a spokesman for the company had the following to say: “We continue to progress our re-restructuring discussions and plans, with no decisions taken at this point.”

This is just another example of how tough the high street and also the economy is right now. The non-food market in the UK is really struggling with the news that Barratts the shoe store are in administration again for the second time in as many years. Let’s just hope that things start to pick up soon!

A government sponsored insolvency service will lay off over four hundred employees this month, as falling demand for public insolvency support leaves many positions unnecessary. The Official Receiver (OR) has invited employees to submit voluntary resignations over the next year, as low demand for its services and poor company morale has left many employees seeking time off.

The Insolvency Service is one of the government’s most frequently absent staffing sectors, with an estimated sixty percent lead in absent employees above its counterparts. Morale at the organisation is reportedly fairly low – an observation that’s backed up by the six-hundred strong applications for voluntary relief and resignation. Around 400 staff are expected to leave the service this year.

The reduction in staff comes alongside a prediction that personal and corporate insolvencies will fall this year, although many in the organisation are unsure of this occurring. While insolvencies have decreased in many parts of the country, some economic sectors continue to see bankruptcies and pre pack administration packages on a weekly, sometimes twice-weekly basis.

There are even concerns that, with its lower staffing levels, the service may no longer be able to assist individuals and businesses with their insolvency issues. However, the Insolvency Service, now affiliated with a number of other bankruptcy and insolvency offices, has promised to keep a fair level of staff onboard to take care of small business insolvencies and personal cases.

For casual finance section readers, terms like ‘pre pack administration‘ and ‘insolvency’ can seem like descriptions of a business’s impending closure. In many cases, the common assumption is an obvious truth, with businesses becoming insolvent and ultimately failing to reopen. However, it’s also a potential indicator of future strength – one that more businesses are finding success with.

For Hember Plant Hire, a plant hire and staffing firm in Warrington, pre pack administration lead to a significant increase in saved jobs. The struggling company was facing layoffs of up to 40 workers, but entered into a pre pack administration agreement to save over thirty jobs. While the company is still operating at a loss, demand has increased in its field and opportunities for profit are present.

The same situation has been reflected on the fields of Britain’s top football teams over the last three years. Teams that, for all accounts and purposes, were struggling financially are now leaders in their sectors and on the field, largely due to smart accounting decisions and administration deals. It’s not just football teams, however, thousands of British businesses have benefited from administration.

Perhaps the idea behind the negative public view of administration is that it can put jobs at risk – a belief that is occasionally true. However, it’s worth noting that many of Britain’s ‘troubled’ or high-risk businesses have made it out the other end of a difficult administration period. Often with plans of expanding further and creating more jobs, offering more shares, and helping more people.

First it was England’s southern business corridor; now it may be Scotland’s turn to experience major increases in business bankruptcy and insolvency. Recent figures suggest that more insolvencies tend to occur throughout Scotland than in other part of the nation. Throughout the past two years, almost two thousand Scottish businesses have been forced to close – a new record throughout the country.

The most dramatic rise in insolvencies occurred in 2010, where over 1,000 businesses were forced to close during the year. Leading accountants and insolvency specialists have commented on such a vast rise in insolvencies, claiming that the figures are ‘troubling.’ Despite the record levels of failure amongst Scottish businesses, fewer families and individuals have become bankrupt than last year.

It’s certainly a poor situation for the Scottish economy, which has experienced a range of shuffles in the energy and construction industries throughout 2010. While 2011 has set off in a rather poor path with major factory and plant closures, it could eventually turn around. For thousands businesses in a bad state throughout Scotland, returning to profitability while avoiding insolvency is a key goal.

Personal and business bankruptcy figures in the United Kingdom have been a major talking point over the past two years, and they continue to feature prominently in the news. What isn’t showing up quite so often, however, are the vast regional differences in insolvency rates. Many of the UK’s large towns and cities have avoided the insolvency bug entirely, while others have been hard hit.

London has been home to a greater deal of insolvencies than many smaller UK cities – a reality that many believe is due to a greater service economy within the city. Firms that specialize in marketing and advertising – two sectors that have historically seen reduced spending during recessions – have been hit harder than many in manufacturing, resulting in a disproportionate amount of insolvencies.

Then there’s the large amount of exporters and import-driven businesses throughout the UK, many of which have been caught up in major currency and demand fluctuations. What most insolvencies share is a ‘greater motion’ effect, in which the economy as a whole has seen reduced business. For a great deal of Britain’s businesses, it’s going to be important to avoid this effect in the future.

Here at Real Business Recovery, we’ve previously reported on the growth stall in the construction industry, particularly throughout Britain. Spending on new infrastructure has taken a hit, with both the public sector and private industry instead focusing on restructuring and profit maximisation. It has been a major blow for construction in Britain, but in many areas it appears to be bouncing back.

Scotland’s construction industry is a mixed bag, in almost every way. Despite growing over the last year, insolvencies remain high and hope remains fairly low within the industry. Output has grown a lot in the last quarter – up an official 6.2 percent – but issues such as companies going into pre pack administration deals and business insolvency remain at an all-time high, worrying many owners.

Insolvency figures suggest that, while the economy is technically moving forward, many businesses that once drove its success are failing to recover from the last three years. Corporate insolvencies in the Scottish construction industry increased by approximately 24 percent last quarter. While it’s hard to judge long-term growth now, it’s quite understandable that many in the industry, are sceptical.

One of Britain’s largest pub and restaurant property owners has sold its properties as part of a large pre pack administration deal. The former property company, Piccadilly Licensed Properties, is now no longer operational after moving through an administration deal and restructuring its holdings. A new company, Admiral Taverns, will take over the 189 property lease and management deals.

While this news is unlikely to affect the pubs owners – most of whom lease their property through a third party – it’s a major shift in the back end of the industry. Rental rates for entertainment property tends to be fairly high, with many pub operators sacrificing a large portion of their monthly revenue for property costs. A small change in pricing could, in theory, cause problems for the 189 operators.

Piccadilly Licensed Properties’ case is far from unusual, as several other leading pub and restaurant property holding companies have been forced to file for bankruptcy or move through administration deals in the last twelve months. What makes this such a major event is the extent of the change – an estimated 189 properties will change hands, many of which are located within small cities.

Bankruptcy is all about statistics, many of them quite shocking, and another has been revealed this week. Official reports have shown that more than 1,100 businesses collapsed every working day last year, the highest level since Office for National Statistics records began a decade ago.

The figures equate to almost one in eight businesses being closed down over the year, with 279,000 firms going under in total.

With each firm employing an average of four to five people, that means around 1.25million people lost their jobs due to the collapse of their employer.

Jane Bennett, head of campaigns at the Forum of Private Business, said: “Many veteran business owners well into their 60s have told us that they have never known such difficult trading conditions. We are by no means out of the woods yet. Businesses are just as vulnerable to failure coming out of a recession as they are during one.”

The worst-hit sectors of business were construction, transport, storage, accommodation, food, information, communication, business administration and support services.

Prue Watson, from the Federation of Small Business, said: “For small businesses, 2009 was an incredibly tough year. Those that did survive faced tough conditions with refusals for loans and overdrafts at a high, big business debtors paying up to 120 days late and a lethal cocktail of a decrease in trade and an increase in costs.”

It’s been a day to forget for the ConDem government after David Cameron’s enterprise adviser Lord Young resigned after his outlandish claim that the British public “had never had it so good”.

The Tory peer said many people had benefited from low interest rates during the “so-called recession”. The Prime Minister refuted the claims, brandishing them “unacceptable”.

Labour leader, Ed Miliband, has welcomed the resignation, describing Lord Young’s comments as “disgraceful” and that his appointment as an adviser reflected badly on the Prime Minister.

Lord Young, an ex-cabinet minister, decided to step down following intense media scrutiny after he made remarks about the impact of the recession and future spending cuts.

Public comments on Sky News included: ”Lord Young is right in a way; after all, millions of council staff have not known that a recession had taken place.” On the flipside, one said: “A hefty public rebuke followed by his sacking is appropriate – not for saying it, as he believes it to be, but for being stupid and arrogant in the face of the disappointment of the majority in this nation.”

Shadow business secretary John Denham said Lord Young was completely “out of touch” with the day-to-day problems facing families and businesses, stressing his comments were “deeply insensitive”.

He told the BBC the affair “raises real questions about David Cameron’s judgement” in appointing someone with Lord Young’s views.

Before his resignation had been announced, David Cameron said his adviser would be doing “a bit less speaking” in the future.

“Obviously he is extremely embarrassed,” Mr Cameron said of the remarks during a visit to Cornwall. “He was very quick to retract completely what he said. It was unacceptable.”

Lord Young caused this controversy by telling a newspaper that the government’s spending cuts, totalling more than £80bn over four years, would just take state spending levels back to what they were in 2007 – a time, he said, when people were “not short of money”.

“Now, I don’t remember in ’07 being short of money or the government being short of money,” he said.

“So, you know, I have a feeling and a hope that when this goes through, people will wonder what all the fuss was about.

“Of course, there will be people who complain, but these are people who think they have a right for the state to support them.”