BUSINESS failures in the south east were down 7.7 per cent last year from 1999, according to the latest figures from Dun & Bradstreet.

The D&B survey showed that the south east, including Bucks, recorded 7,640 business failures during 2000 comprising 3,264 liquidiations, a fall of 7.7 per cent and 4,376 bankruptcies, a decrease of 7.8 per cent.

Philip Mellor, senior analyst for D&B in Holmers Farm Way, High Wycombe, said: "This news was good Christmas cheer for the business world, particularly in the London and the south and east. But the split between north and south must be a cause for some concern, particularly if the current economic climate begins to slow down as a result of a fall in the growth rates from across the Atlantic."

The north was the only area where the number of business failures rose.