Coastal towns have dominated a list of the top areas for personal bankruptcies with Ipswich and Great Yarmouth featuring in the top 10.

Yarmouth was fifth and Ipswich ninth in the list of towns with the most personal insolvencies last year, said accountants Moore Stephens.

The firm said its research showed that coastal industries and tourism continued to decline.

Yarmouth had 38.1 insolvencies per 10,000 residents, compared with a national average of just under 20.

Ipswich had a rate of 34.8 bankruptcies per 10,000 residents.

The report said seaside tourist areas often lacked the economic diversity of bigger cities and were too reliant on low-spending domestic tourists for employment.

Many local entrepreneurs and educated young people are leaving traditional holiday destinations and moving to areas such as London, said Moore Stephens.

Spokesman Jeremy Willmont said: 'Bankruptcy in the more rundown of the British seaside towns has become an epidemic.

'As seaside tourism declines, there is less chance for these areas to reinvent their image as exciting, vibrant places for business to thrive.

'High levels of debt show the underlying fragility of those economies and the low levels of accumulated wealth in these towns.'