Over half of UK businesses are not expecting government help over late payments, new research has found.
Research by Bacs Direct Credit revealed that 56% of small and medium sized businesses did not anticipate government assistance in dealing with late payments, with the number of firms tackling the issue independently increasing.
As a result, the number of companies feeling the impact of late payments had fallen by nearly a quarter in June 2010 in just six months.
Mike Hutchinson, head of marketing at Bacs, believes this is largely due to the effort of individual companies: “It’s extremely heartening to see that there are now many companies making great strides to help themselves beat the late payments cycle by sharpening up their billing and credit control procedures.”
Equifax Business welcomed the Bacs report as a positive sign that businesses are managing financial challenges.
However, head of Equifax Commercial Information Solutions Nick Beishon, warned: “As speculation continues about whether the UK is heading for a double-dip recession, businesses are still vulnerable to bad debt and the risk of bankruptcy.”
According to the Bacs study, 769,000 companies remain affected by late payments, with the total amount of money owed to these companies now nearly a third more than it was six months ago. In total a massive £24.6bn is now owed to businesses across Britain.
“However, Equifax’s Business Failures Report and the new Bacs data do seem to indicate that all the right actions are currently being taken by UK businesses – and the organisations that support them - to survive in the continuing difficult trading conditions”, concluded Beishon.