{"id":7632,"date":"2019-02-18T10:26:15","date_gmt":"2019-02-18T10:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/late-paying-big-firms-should-get-public-contract-bans\/"},"modified":"2019-02-18T10:26:15","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T10:26:15","slug":"late-paying-big-firms-should-get-public-contract-bans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/late-paying-big-firms-should-get-public-contract-bans\/","title":{"rendered":"Late-paying big firms &#8216;should get public contract bans&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div property=\"articleBody\">\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width lead\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"js-image-replace\" alt=\"Small business\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/16984\/production\/_105684529__104151863_gettyimages-614128222.jpg\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\"\/><span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><br \/>\n                 <span class=\"story-image-copyright\">Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><figcaption class=\"media-caption\"><span class=\"off-screen\">Image caption<\/span><br \/>\n                <span class=\"media-caption__text\"><br \/>\n                    The FSB says 36% of small businesses in Scotland have suffered cashflow issues because of late payments<br \/>\n                <\/span><br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Big companies who pay their suppliers &#8220;unacceptably late&#8221; should be banned from getting public contracts, small business leaders have claimed.<\/p>\n<p>The Federation of Small Businesses wants firms to prove in advance that they are &#8220;responsible&#8221; payers.<\/p>\n<p>It has called on the Scottish government to withhold devolved contracts in a bid to tackle the country&#8217;s &#8220;lamentable payment culture&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The Scottish government has said it &#8220;strongly&#8221; encourages prompt payment.<\/p>\n<p>The FSB claims late payments have led to cashflow issues at 36% of its firms.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew McRae, FSB&#8217;s Scotland policy chairman, said: &#8220;Our lamentable payment culture isn&#8217;t a new phenomenon, but that doesn&#8217;t make it any more acceptable.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As we face the possibility of a sustained period of economic turbulence, we can&#8217;t see bigger businesses use their smaller customers as a free source of credit.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">&#8216;Corrosive practice&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>He added: &#8220;For far too long, government has tolerated big businesses treating their smaller suppliers with disrespect.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At the FSB, our patience has grown thin and we want to see decision-makers pull every lever available to eradicate this corrosive practice.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The FSB says a survey which it carried out suggests that 36% of small businesses in Scotland have had financial difficulties as a result of late payments.<\/p>\n<p>The average value of each late payment owed to a Scottish firm is, according to the business organisation, \u00a35,718.<\/p>\n<p>Mr McRae said: &#8220;It is clear that late payment makes it more difficult to run a business in Scotland.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In addition to seeing action from government, we need to see leaders of big businesses in Scotland take responsibility for how their companies treat their supply chains.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A Scottish government spokesperson said: &#8220;We strongly encourage all businesses and organisations to ensure the prompt payment of suppliers, and expect those who deliver public contracts to adopt the highest standard of ethical business practices.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our work to foster and support fair business practices, such as prompt payment, includes the promotion of the Scottish Business Pledge. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Over 590 businesses have already committed to the Pledge, and Ministers have written to all Scottish Government suppliers encouraging those who haven&#8217;t already to sign up.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-scotland-scotland-business-47270102\">Source<\/a> by <a href=\"\">[author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The FSB says 36% of small businesses in Scotland have suffered cashflow issues because of late payments Big companies who pay their suppliers &#8220;unacceptably late&#8221; should be banned from getting public contracts, small business leaders have claimed. The Federation of Small Businesses wants firms to prove in advance that &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}