Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
A quarter (24pc) of SMEs are reporting that late payments are a bigger issue than they were a year ago.
This figure comes from the latest Independent Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW) Business Confidence Monitor, which shows some worrying trends. Six out of nine industries (property, business services, manufacturing & engineering, construction, retail & wholesale and banking, finance and insurance) say that the problem of late payments is growing.
Tim Gardiner, finance director at Panton McLeod Limited, says that large corporates are still notorious late payers, particularly in the construction industry:
“A large part of the problem is where companies have complicated processes for the submission of invoices or claims for payment, combined with a lack of clarity as to who is the contracting company in relation to large scale projects. This arises from intermediaries acting on behalf of utility companies in my experience.”
Around two fifths of businesses report that regulatory requirements and customer demand are also rising problems.
Business confidence is still down
ICAEW’s results show that confidence remains negative this quarter at -10.3. However, this is still higher than Q2 2019 when it was -16.6.
Events like British Steel’s insolvency, evidence of a global shutdown

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