SMALLER businesses in the region are going to the wall at a much faster rate than larger companies, according to latest figures.

And the rate of failures is markedly higher in the North West than in other parts of the country, confirming recent housing surveys which also suggest a widening economic gap between North and South.

The figures on company failures emerged from the latest survey by business information company Dun & Bradstreet.

In the North West total business failures rose by 22 per cent in the first six months of the year to 2,373. Company liquidations rose by 26 per cent to 1,128 and bankruptcies by 18 per cent to 1,245.

Nationally during the first six months of this year, there were 12,031 small business bankruptcies, an increase of 14.2 per cent on the first six months of 1998. This is double the fatality rate among larger companies, which was 6.3%.

Philip Mellor, senior analyst at D&B, commented: "These latest figures clearly illustrate the slowdown in the manufacturing sector and the knock on effects of this slowdown in smaller businesses.

"The fact that the service sector has been to a large extent protected from this slowdown is reflected in the comparatively good figures for London and the South East."

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