According to the firm, the number of distressed companies rose by 6% in the final quarter of last year and it warned that, in keeping with other recessions, this figure was likely to increase in 2010 once growth returns to the economy.

Begbies also predicted that the government's tax deferral scheme would be an exacerbating factor in the corporate insolvency rate this year.

The scheme, dubbed 'time to pay', was launched last year and has enabled 242,000 companies to defer £4.2bn in tax payments, through a "remarkably easy" deferral process.

Speaking in The Times today, Nick Hood, a partner at the firm, said that the government had not anticipated the levels of demand for the scheme, warning that a significant number of those would not survive.

"The problem is that it is encouraging companies to go on trading and racking up debt beyond a point where they ought to," he said.

"Most companies found it remarkably easy to get the referral – they just had to ring their local tax office and ask nicely."

He added that anecdotal evidence had suggested that the HM Revenues & Customs office was beginning to clamp down on entries to the scheme.