Brexit, the pandemic, globalisation and Ukraine – the four horsemen of the economic apocalypse are mounting their dark clouds campaign to push Britain into a monetary winter.

All the signs are there. Crumbling household savings, mounting debt and a cost-of-living crisis so bad that 47 per cent of homeowners will struggle to cope as a winter of discontent builds.

Another sign of the recessionary rot setting in is that in the first three months of 2022 there were nearly 5,000 company insolvencies, more than double the number in the same period last year.

According to data published by the Insolvency Service this week, voluntary insolvencies in England and Wales reached their highest level since records began in 1960.

Surging business closures is a sure sign of a recessionary cycle appearing on the horizon. Voluntary liquidations rose by a never previously recorded annual rate of 117 per cent to about 4,300. Not even the catastrophic financial crisis came close.

Those four horses bring increased commodity and energy prices, supply chain disruption and a cost-of-living crisis – all of which are reflected in business activity.

According to the Office for National Statistics – 137,000 British businesses closed in the first quarter of this year, 23 per cent more than in the same period last year.

The government’s ‘levelling-up’ promises are having no effect whatsoever. In the North East and the West Midlands business shutdowns rose 49 per cent, more than double the 19 per cent increase in London. The level of closures was also the worst on record.

This was the fourth consecutive quarter in which more businesses were closed than created in yet another sign of recession – or more likely a period of stagflation – the worst of all economic cycles.