Almost 2,000 businesses in Cornwall shut their doors for the last time in 2021 as closures across the UK reached their highest level since 2017, new figures show.

Business leadership group the Institute of Directors said that, while businesses open and close all the time, the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic “complicated” the business landscape across the country.

Office for National Statistics figures show 1,910 business closed in Cornwall in 2021 – up from 1,765 in 2020.

It was also up from 1,790 in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic hit.

Nationally, 327,000 businesses closed in 2021 – a nine per cent increase on the year before and the highest number since 2017.

Kitty Ussher, chief economist at the IoD, said businesses are constantly opening and closing, particularly sole traders undertaking casual work – including delivery couriers, which saw a boom during the pandemic – and self-employed people conducting freelance work.

These are included in the official statistics and are more likely to be created or closed in a short period of time, Ms Ussher added.

Across the country, 360,000 businesses began trading last year – a nine per cent increase on the 333,000 the year before and the highest since 2016.

Of these, 2,725 were in Cornwall.

It meant a total of 23,185 businesses were active in the county in 2021 – up from 22,205 the year before.

The IoD said the majority of new and closed businesses were sole traders.

Meanwhile, in Cornwall, there were around 80 high-growth businesses in the area – meaning the annualised growth in the number of employees of the business over the last three years is at least 20 per cent – and around 2,615 enterprises employed 10 or more staff.