UK businesses still take 60 days to pay their bills!

UK businesses are still taking two months – 60 days – to pay their bills, almost exactly the same as a yearearlier, new research published by Experian, the global information solutions company, has revealed. Seven years after the introduction of The Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act, which was intended to speed up payments, the average time UK companies take to pay their bills is still two days longer than before the legislation was introduced!

Experian’s findings are based on the payment patterns of 366,633 companies, the largest sample ever analysed. The report shows that large companies have extended the time they take to pay their suppliers – usually much smaller than they are – even further and take an average of 80.6 days, compared with 80.3 days a year earlier. Large companies take an average of 21.4 days longer to pay their bills than small companies and 20 days longer than medium-sized companies.

The gap between large, medium and small companies has widened since the Late Payment legislation was introduced. In 1997, large companies took an average of 72.5 days to pay their bills, eight days less than they do now, whereas small companies have become four days slower and medium-sized companies six days slower. Small companies take 59.2 days, on average, to pay their bills, while medium-sized companies now take 60.7 days, up 0.7 days on 2004. As a result, the average payment period for UK companies, irrespective of size, is 60.1 days.