The round table, hosted by the minister for business and enterprise Matthew Hancock, acknowledged the progress made in bringing issues around supply chains to light, and sought consensus on how to tackle the issue.
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) acknowledged efforts from government to improve payment culture, but has called for an independent inquiry to get clear actions and the progress needed to tackle late payment and supply chain bullying.
The FSB has been working to raise the profile of many of these practices including flat fees, dubbed ‘pay to stay’, excessively long payment terms exceeding payment agreements, discounts for prompt payment and retrospective discounting.
FSB national chairman John Allan says that late payment and the UK’s poor payment culture are difficult issues to address, and that the situation is continuing to deteriorate. He adds “It must be independently led and produce clear recommendations in time for the next government to act on early in the next Parliament. We have already fed back to government on this issue in numerous consultations but without any significant progress yet in tackling the underlying causes of our poor payment culture.”
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