The number of failed businesses dropped to 1,542 last month, while small to medium companies fared the best, with insolvency rates falling year on year.
The number of UK business that failed in July 2010 dropped 33% from the 2,312 insolvencies recorded last year. According to Experian, the latest results equate to an insolvency rate of 0.08% of the business population in July 2009, compared with 0.12% the year before.

Greater London saw the highest rate of insolvencies, with 402 businesses failing last month. However, while this figure is still down on the 570 reported in July 2009, Greater London continues to be the region where businesses had the lowest financial strength score at 79.75. The North East reported the fewest collapses at 35 - down again on its 2009 figure of 69.

The financial strength score of UK businesses in July was also marginally higher than the 80.61 recorded for the same month last year and at 80.93 was even slightly ahead of the 80.83 recorded in June 2010. However, it remains down on the 12 month high of 81.37 reported in December 2009.

All businesses, bar large companies with more than 501 employees, reported a year-on-year fall in insolvencies. The biggest improvements were among those who employed 101-500 members of staff, which reported 56% fewer insolvencies than July 2009.

Companies with 501 or more employees, were the only size businesses to see an annual increase, with the insolvency rate leaping to 0.17% from 0.11% per cent in 2009.

Max Firth, managing principal of pH, an Experian company, said: "July's data indicates that the SME population is faring much better in terms of insolvencies than it did this time last year. However, increasing failures at the top end of the market demonstrates clearly that there is a still a great deal of uncertainty. Given this ever changing picture, it is vital that organisations ensure they understand and proactively manage the risk that those they do business with exposes them to."