The UK Government has been consulting on how best to tackle late payments in the UK, which costs the economy approximately £11 billion per year.
Many CECA members feel the negative cash flow impacts of late payments daily and to ensure that they had a voice in the consultation the association ran a survey to gauge views on solutions and recommendations.
Based on this survey, CECA has recommended to the Government:
- That a legal maximum of 60 days for payment terms should be introduced.
- That a 30-day timeframe for raising invoice disputes should be introduced to help limit abuse of “pay-when-paid” practices.
- That the Small Business Commissioner (SBC) should be empowered to fine or publicly name persistent late payers.
- The reform or abolition of retentions is necessary to protect small businesses in the supply chain and government should look at legislation to enable this.
To read CECA’s submission, please follow this link.