By Christina Fincher

LONDON (Reuters) - The economy went into steep decline at the end of last year when consumers tightened their belts, businesses slashed jobs and the housing market ground to a virtual standstill, a trio of surveys showed on Tuesday.

The figures suggest the economy has entered its deepest recession since at least the 1980s and will add urgency to discussions on fresh policy initiatives to ease the pain of the credit squeeze.

A survey by the British Retail Consortium showed retail sales fell last month at their fastest pace for a month of December since records began 14 years ago..

"December's performance has historically set the scene for the year ahead, so the outlook is indeed bleak," said Helen Dickinson, head of retail at KPMG.

Furniture retailer Land of Leather this week joined a growing list of household names to have disappeared from the high street and analysts expect more to go out of business as the recession takes hold.

A survey from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, meanwhile, showed the pace of decline in British house prices eased slightly in December, but sales hit a record low and the proportion of unsold houses rose to its highest level since 1992.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown unveiled a 500 million pound plan on Monday to stop the recession creating an army of long-term unemployed. Further measures on bank lending are expected later this week.

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