Umunna: Late payment figures are deeply concerning
Friday, July 1st, 2011Today the Federation of Small Business published new statistics on late payments to businesses. They show that almost three quarter of businesses have been paid late in the last 12 months.
Commenting Shadow Minister for Small Business and Enterprise Chuka Umunna MP said:
“Over 4000 businesses have needlessly gone bust since 2008 due to late payments and these statistics underline just how pressing this problem still is for small businesses. As well as the scale of the amounts owed and length of waiting times, it is deeply concerning that so many companies are being forced to write off invoices.
“It is welcome that the government has continued Labour’s prompt payment code, but ministers need to take further action by ensuring that all large companies which supply the public sector – beyond just the Whitehall departments – sign up to the code and that prompt payment happens all the way down supply chains.”
