Darlington is one of the top 60 towns in the UK for business failures, a report has revealed.

The town was placed 54th in a survey of UK towns and cities with the highest number of insolvent companies.

Nearly 1.9 per cent of businesses in Darlington collapsed last year, according to the survey by R3, the Association of Business Recovery Professionals.

Darlington's place reflected the general position of the North-East as the third worst region in the country for company insolvencies.

Newcastle was 16th in the table and Durham was listed as joint 33rd.

Sunderland, York and Teesside were in the bottom half of the table.

Paul Dutton, chairman of R3 for the North-East, said: "Generally, companies in the North-East are being hit hard by the decline in the manufacturing sector and this, coupled with the effects of the global downturn, has led to such high levels of insolvency."

A spokesman for Darlington Borough Council said: "Businesses don't have to contact the council and keep us updated, so we don't have figures on the number going under. But I think what this survey shows is that we have a healthy number of businesses actually starting up in the town.

"If they accept help from one of the council's business schemes, they do stand a better chance of succeeding."

He said in the past 12 months 106 Darlington businesses had been assisted through the Start Right In Business and Getting Start programmes, delivered by Darlington Business Venture with financial support from Business Link Tees Valley and Darlington council.

The council also supports businesses through a loan scheme. Inquiries to the council's business support team were up 50 per cent in January, compared with last January.

The league table of business failures was compiled by post code towns and featured 117 towns and cities.

It found that businesses in south-west London were least likely to wind up, while the top nine places for business failure were all in the North of England, with Bolton and Manchester topping the list.