The number of businesses going bankrupt declined 3% in April compared to March, according to figures released by Equifax.

Regionally the North East performed best, closely followed by London and the East Midlands. Yorkshire and Humberside, the East of England and Wales were the only regions to see an increase in the number of businesses going bust.

In terms of sector performance, the construction and retail sectors fared well in April with drops in failures of 12.3% and 9.1% respectively. The Wholesale sector performed the worst with a 2.8% rise in failures in April compared to March.

"UK businesses are continuing to work hard to recover from the recent challenges. However it will be particularly interesting to see what story our analysis tells in May and June as the result of the General Election starts to have an impact on the UK economy," said Neil Munroe of Equifax.