Wolseley UK and Grafton Builder’s Merchants are among the latest companies to sign up to the Prompt Payment code. The Code, which is sponsored, hosted and administered by the Institute of Credit Management on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), encourages and promotes best payment practice between organisations and suppliers. Signatories to the Code commit to paying their suppliers within clearly defined terms and to ensuring there is a proper process for dealing with any issues that may occur.
In January, the Business Minister Michael Fallon, wrote to the all businesses in the FTSE 350, giving them one month to sign up to the Prompt Payment Code or face being publicly named and shamed. Mr Fallon commented, “Late payment is a real issue for businesses across the country. It is not fair and poor cash flow can prevent small firms growing and even push them into insolvency. We need to improve the payment culture and I welcome the response of big businesses in signing up to the common sense principles in the Prompt Payment Code.”
A spokesperson from SmartDebit commented, “The warning from Mr Fallon seems to have had an effect on the UK’s largest companies as a further 94 FTSE 350 companies have signed the Prompt Payment Code. It’s great news to see that five years after the inception of the Code, the largest organisations in the UK are committing to good payment practices. A healthy cash flow is a lot more critical to smaller businesses in this climate as they do not have the financial cushion that large corporates do.”
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