YORK businesses are the most buoyant in Yorkshire and Humberside, according to the results of a new survey announced today which have left business leaders in the city jubilant.

Fewer firms go under in York than in any other urban area in the region - 0.47 per cent - compared with worst performers Leeds and Wakefield, which share insolvency rates of 1.24 per cent, states the report by R3, the Association of Business Recovery Professionals.

The historic city is near the top of the tree nationally - 19th out of 119. Only Harrogate comes anywhere near York's good ratings in Yorkshire with only 0.64 per cent of firms there going bust.

Both places are well below the national average of 0.75 per cent.

The news is likely to give a huge boost to the efforts of North Yorkshire's new inward investment board, york-england.com

Its chief executive, Imelda Havers, said: "This excellent report underlines the fact that York is a viable place to relocate and to do business. It also counters the simplistic view that life is all grim up North."

Norman Whyte, chief executive of York, Selby & Malton Business Advice Centres, said: "This is brilliant news and confirms the success of all we have been trying to do to stimulate new businesses and encourage existing ones.

"Everyone outside York admires the city's growing business support network and the way in which the professionals of the city work closely together to create a good business climate. These figures are the fruits of that."

The R3 report is being seen as a vindication of a study two years ago by Dun & Bradstreet which declared York, along with Brighton, to be the most profitable city in Britain in which to do business.

But seven months later, in December 2002, the city's business community was outraged by another controversial study by Experian, which placed York as among the WORST profit-making places in Britain - a lowly 377th out of 404 towns and cities.

At the time Experian was criticised for leaving out the results of big firms in the city. Since then three more reports have pointed to a booming Yorkshire economy, with substantial upturn in orders, including exports.

Today's report also reflects a growing tendency in York for ailing businesses to be rescued, rather than ripped apart.

David Horner, of David Horner & Company, spokesman for R3 in York, said: "Any business hit by a trade creditor becoming insolvent is likely to get more money back by supporting a rescue than by winding the company up."

Updated: 11:02 Monday, July 05, 2004