Rising debtor days puts economic resilience at risk

Almost 115,000 businesses waited an average of 57 days for payment last year, according to research by North West insolvency expert Begbies Traynor.

It said of these firms awaiting payment, 1,000 subsequently entered insolvency as a result.

The data, which was gathered from more than one million debtor day reports since 2011, also revealed that of those 1,000 businesses entering insolvency during 2018, 34% had debtor days in excess of 57 days and 15% for longer than 86 days.

This highlights how late payments could potentially be a significant factor of insolvency.

During 2018, media companies were made to wait the longest for payment with an average of 69 debtor days.

Of even greater concern is continued growth of the length of debtor days from 2011-2018, with a nine per cent increase in the telecommunication & information technology sector, from 62 to 68 days, and a five per cent increase in travel & tourism (46-48 days), general retail (41-43 days) and media (66-69 days).

Paul Stanley, North West regional managing partner at Begbies Traynor, said: “We regularly encounter the catastrophic effects of late payments, particularly on SME’s in our region.

“This worrying growth in the number of late payments must be addressed if we are to help businesses, and the UK economy, grow.

“Otherwise, the knock-on effects will spiral out of control and this trend of late payment will constrict, squeeze and suffocate growing businesses.

“However, even the largest companies are not immune from the impact of late payments, as this practice impairs cash flow and makes businesses less competitive,” he added.

The data also revealed that the support services sector is most likely to be hit hard by late payments with almost 35,000 businesses reporting debtor days in the past year.

Of these businesses, 260 went under during 2018, reporting an average of 25 debtor days.

This was followed by the construction industry with almost 12,000 debtor days filed with an average 61 day wait for payment, and 146 insolvencies.

The utilities sector has also experienced a worrying increase of 102% from 912 to 1,838 reports of late payment.

Paul Stanley said: “If this form of bad faith trading is allowed to continue, then more businesses in our region will inevitably go to the wall.

“It is simply not sustainable for suppliers to take the hit when payment is not made on time – even businesses with large financial resources and contingency plans will suffer.

“Our Red Flag Alert data has shown that year-on-year more businesses fall into significant financial distress, and with more than 100,000 businesses filing debtor days last year the suggested trend is that more difficult times are on the horizon.

“If this is true, then UK businesses will need to improve the culture of late payments if our economy is become stronger and more resilient to change.”