Adrian Hyde, President

IPA Insolvency Practitioner newsletter, April 2025

Dear all,

I shall start this month’s editorial with an apology; this month sees the IPA’s Annual Conference take place on 30 April, and unfortunately, I am unable to chair the first half of the event. My place will be taken by Yin Lee, your next President. I wish Yin well and hope that the event is the great success that it usually is.

As my period in office nears its end, this month’s column marks yet another turbulent period in the economy. The month has seen international trade take centre stage with the US and China locking horns, creating a large number of tariffs between a wide variety of countries, and the US. Whilst we have remained largely exempt from the larger tariffs, the row has no doubt contributed to this month’s second largest news event, the government taking control of the British Steel plant in Scunthorpe, and the likely re-nationalisation of British Steel which is expected. This will, no doubt, be tying up a great deal of time in Westminster so lets hope that it doesn’t affect the timescales for promised reforms in the legislation covering our sector. I have no doubt that the turbulence and uncertainty resulting from the trade disputes is going to affect our industry for some time to come.

Lastly on the subject of trade, with a wry smile I would like to spare a thought for those suffering under the trade tariffs, and none more so than the 100,000 penguins of the Heard and McDonald Islands. These industrious creatures have also fallen prey to the US with the imposition of a 10% tariff on anything that the poor penguins export! Let’s hope that they can find other markets for whatever it is, presumably fish, that they export!