NEARLY 3,000 businesses in the region collapsed in the first six months of this year, it was revealed yesterday.

The total was 2,731, a survey showed, but the figures indicate the North-East is bucking the national trend which offers some hope for future.

While most areas of the country are experiencing an increase in the number of businesses failing, the North-East is one of only three regions to report a decrease.

Compared to the same period last year, there was a 2.1 per cent decrease in the number of businesses which had failed. Other regions to show a decrease were the East, and the East Midlands.

The report, from business information firm D&B, said nationally the number of companies which had gone bust in the first six months of this year was 8.2 per cent higher than last year at nearly 22,000.

North East Chamber of Commerce membership director Llew Aviss said: "These figures look encouraging for the region and would seem to indicate that fledgling businesses in the North-East are proving a little more robust.

"But we need to see decreases in business failures year on year, and by bigger percentages region-wide, if we are to compete with and out-perform the rest of the UK. We must provide new start-ups with the best possible ongoing support to ensure businesses remain viable and have the opportunity to grow."

Dr John Bridge, chairman of regional development agency One NorthEast, said: "This is good news. We are starting from a lower base than other areas but it is good to see it is moving in the right direction."

Steve Rankin, regional director of the CBI, said closure rates were still unsatisfactorily high. However, he said: "On the other hand these figures are not surprising because there has been some recent indications that the North-East has started to emerge from the recession, which has been very deep, faster than other regions in the country.

"There is a little more room for optimism in the North-East that the corner has started to be turned."

The D&B study also showed the increase in business failures slowed sharply in the second quarter of this year when compared with the same period last year, up less than two per cent.