Businesses improved their late payment performance during October, according to the latest Late Payment Index from Experian, the global information services company.

On average, businesses took 20.99 days beyond their agreed terms to pay their bills during October, compared to 21.54 days in September and 23.20 days in October last year. October saw businesses in the UK settle their bills in the quickest time since April 2008.

Other highlights from the index include:

• The biggest September to October improvement came from businesses in the South-West (falling by 4% to 16.39 days) — the fastest region to pay its bills.
• The South-East saw the greatest year-on-year improvement in its late payment performance (falling by 15.6% to 16.95 days). It was the second fastest region when it came to paying bills.
• For the second month running, the biggest month-on-month improvement in late payments came from the largest businesses (falling by 5% to 23.41 days). However, overall they were still the businesses to take the longest to pay their bills.
• Medium-sized firms (101 to 500 employees) were the fastest at paying their bills and were also the business types to the see the biggest October to November improvement (falling 16% to 19.22 days).
• Agriculture, forestry and fishing continued to be the sector that paid its overdue bills the fastest as in the previous year. It was also the sector to see the biggest month-on-month improvement (falling 16.6% to 10.28 days).
• The IT sector saw the biggest year-on-year improvement in payment performance (falling 46.6% to 16.58 days).
• As in October, the postal and telecommunications sector was the biggest late payment culprit.