Standing view · business · Wigan
deteriorating, held with established confidence, formed on 31 August 2026 from movements in 2026-06.
Business deaths in Wigan fell from 290 in the second quarter of 2025 to 255 in the third and 225 in the fourth, then rose to 325 in the first quarter of 2026. Three consecutive falls in closures have been undone by the most recent reading, which sits above all three. There were 1,065 businesses employing between five and nine people in 2025, 45 employing 100 to 249 and 20 employing 250 to 499, across 10,775 sites.
A view is formed only where the evidence names a figure you can check. Each movement listed as a reason had to be large enough to matter and distinctive in at least one way — unusual against this area's own history, unusual against comparable areas, or sustained over several periods. A movement shared with peers counts for less, because it says something about the country rather than about Wigan. Where no figure supports a direction we hold no view rather than a hedged one.
| Measure | Period | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Business deaths | 2025-06 | improving |
| Business deaths | 2025-09 | improving |
| Business deaths | 2025-12 | improving |
| Business deaths | 2026-03 | deteriorating |
These figures carry no defensible direction of their own: a rising house price is good news to an owner and bad news to someone trying to buy, so we do not score one as an improvement. They are shown because they are part of the picture, and they did not decide the view above.
| Measure | Period | Series |
|---|---|---|
| Businesses employing 100 to 249 people | 2025 | — |
| Businesses employing 250 to 499 people | 2025 | — |
| Businesses employing 5 to 9 people | 2025 | — |
| Business sites | 2025 | — |