New administration and receivership figures from Deloitte, the business advisory firm, show a fall of 19 per cent in the South West in the nine months to September 2007.

There were 83 appointments in the region up to September, a fall of 20 on last year. This amounted to 18 per cent of the UK total, which was down 6 per cent on the corresponding period last year.

The decrease in the South West is the biggest of any region except East Anglia (29 per cent). Every region recorded a fall except the North West, which saw a 1 per cent increase.

Richard Hawes, reorganisation services partner at Deloitte said: "Even though these numbers indicate that the economy continues to be in good health overall, Q3 did see a small upturn in appointments, which may be the precursor of the impact of the summer's credit crisis into the real economy. We will look to the annual figures for further indications on this.

"Despite recent media speculation about a housing market downturn, this is not yet reflected in the numbers of insolvencies hitting the property and construction sector.

"The sector remains steady only decreasing by three per cent for the nine-month period. However, it is fair to expect that as credit becomes tighter in the property market, we may see a ripple effect negatively impacting the industry's support service providers.

"However, the last quarter is a crucial time for this sector and with increasing debt burdens for the British public, spending will be unpredictable over the festive period. This is unlikely to be reflected in appointments in the final quarter but could impact Q1 of 2008."