Worcestershire County Council is the slowest payer in England – survey

LOCAL authorities in the West Midlands are getting better at paying their suppliers promptly.

But Worcestershire County Council is the slowest paying local authority in England.

Research from the Forum of Private Business (FPB) shows that councils in the West Midlands are some of the quickest payers in England with 64% of them now paying their bills within ten days compared to 50% three years ago (a 14% improvement).

But the average payment has improved only marginally during the period at 16.2 days (2009: 16.3).

The fastest payer amongst West Midlands councils is Bromsgrove (6.0 days on average), followed by Wolverhampton (6.4) and North Warwickshire (8.1). Bromsgrove is actually the 11th best performing council in the whole country while Wolverhampton is 14th in the national table.

Lichfield came top for the amount of invoices it paid in under ten days, at 94% – the fourth best nationally. Bromsgrove manages to pay 86.4% of its invoices within ten days.

A number of local authorities – including Solihull, Coventry and Worcester – failed to provide all the relevant data, but of those that did the slowest payer in the West Midlands by far is Worcestershire (65 days on average).

This was enough to earn it the booby prize not just regionally, but also nationally to hand it the unenviable title of slowest paying council in England.

Also at the wrong end of the table are Warwickshire (which takes 26 days to pay) and Stafford (25.5).

The figures overall place the West Midlands third highest nationally for average payment times, but first for the percentage of councils paying in under ten days.

The FPB’s policy advisor Robert Downes said: “Councils in the West Midlands do appear to be making efforts to pay their suppliers in Government target of ten days, and we commend that.

“But looking at the bigger picture only a handful of councils in the region are actually achieving that figure as an average, and frankly that’s disappointing.

“In the space of three years we have seen virtually no improvement in average payment times, which is again disappointing.  There are a few exceptions, but most councils here have much to do to get even close to the Government’s ten day payment target.”