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It is likely the HMRC debt is mostly VAT, which is payable quarterly: when cash gets tight the VAT receipts might be dipped into to maintain cashflow. The restructuring referred to (closing two offices and reducing headcount by 37%) will have had some immediate cost, and otherwise the challenges seem to have been a lengthening of the cash cycle and recent reforms to the costs process.

While I am usually very cynical about CVAs and IVAs, on the face of the story this one looks more promising. But not a business (the costs industry) I'd care to be in right now.