UK Government ‘Threat to Name and Shame Late Payers’
The UK’s FTSE 350-listed companies are reviewing new rules on prompter payments for suppliers after the government’s business and enterprise minister, Michael Fallon, threatened to ‘name and shame’ companies that refuse to comply, according to
the Daily Telegraph
.
The paper reports that the minister has written to the chief executive officers (CEOs) of the top 350 companies, asking them to sign up to a Prompt Payment Code (PPC), in response to complaints from after small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that they can wait for up to 180 days to receive payment in return for goods and services supplied to larger companies.
Fallon, who said that many large companies have accumulated substantial cash piles and can easily afford to pay their suppliers promptly, has threatened to “go to war” with companies on the issue by threatening to publicly ‘name and shame’ any corporate that does not sign up to the PCC over the next month.
According to the
Telegraph
, major companies that have yet to do so include supermarket chains Sainsbury’s and William Morrison, insurers Admiral and Aviva, Olympic power supplier Aggreko, GKN, Hammerson and Rio Tinto. Sainsbury’s attracted negative publicity last year when it extended the time taken to pay suppliers of non-food items to 75 days, which in some cases had previously been 30 days.
UK body the Forum of Private Business (FPB) has described late payments as the “modern day scourge” of smaller companies and claims that it is occurring more regularly.