Law fails to ease cash delays for small firms_2
17 August 2012
Legislation giving small firms the right to charge interest to companies for not paying bills within 30 days has failed to reduce the average time taken for debtors to pay up.
A study of 4,100 firms’ payment audits found that the average wait was 46 days, which has not changed for three years. A quarter of companies took more than 60 days to pay suppliers in the past year, according to the Federation of Small Businesses.
The Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 allows small firms to charge interest at 8 per cent above...