The majority of local authorities are breaching their legal duty to ensure that suppliers are paid on time, an investigation has found.

Blog

Enterprise Nation has helped thousands of people start and grow their businesses. Led by founder, Emma Jones CBE, Enterprise Nation connects you to the resources and expertise to help you succeed.

Local councils 'ignoring law' on prompt payment to small suppliers

The findings were discovered following a freedom of information request to local councils in England by the Electrical Contractors' Association (ECA) which examined whether they are meeting the requirements introduced last year stating that "any subcontract awarded" by a local authority "contains suitable provisions to impose" the payment of invoices within 30 days.

But ECA found 52% of councils have not yet built in a contractual requirement for 30 day payments to flow thorough the supply chain, and 7% do not know if they do it.

In addition, 28% admitted they "have not and will not" be building in a contractual requirement to ensure the supply chain is paid on time, while only 9% monitor whether their supply chain is paid within 30 days.

ECA's Paul Reeve said: "Our survey shows that many local authorities continue to ignore the legal requirements for prompt public sector payment along the supply chain. It's particularly disappointing when one considers that doing so would support SMEs in their local areas.

"We have seen next to no improvement among many local councils since the ECA conducted a similar investigation last year. The government has issued regulations to help smaller businesses, but they are being viewed as optional by far too many councils, and too many are opting out.

"What we need is for government to approach those who flout the law and to make it harder for them not to comply, than to comply. The government could impose penalties to achieve this."

Startup 2017 Banner

&lt;p&gt;Hi. We’re 24 fingers, an award-winning digital marketing agency.&amp;nbsp;We help small business owners&amp;nbsp;who are all fingers &amp;amp;&amp;nbsp;thumbs with their&amp;nbsp;marketing to grow their brand. Founder Emma Goode is the&amp;nbsp;proud Local Leader for Enterprise Nation in Essex.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Whether it’s getting more leads from social, increasing brand awareness or engaging with your customers, our fingers can help add extra digits to your bottom line.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We work with start-ups and companies both big and small, as well as individuals who need a helping hand navigating the ever-changing world of social media. We know how difficult it can be for businesses to keep up with all the algorithm updates.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Coming from a copywriting and publishing background, our expert team of content creators also know just how powerful great content can be. Just ask the 26 million people who saw our ‘Nostalgia’ campaign for one of our clients. That was achieved without spending a penny on paid advertising too. Powerful stuff, eh?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Whether you need an SEO strategy,&amp;nbsp;help with social media management, advice on what to blog about,&amp;nbsp;how to get more sales from social, or you fancy coming along to one of our practical social media training workshops, our hands are here to support you and your business, whatever stage you’re at.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Click here to book your&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://calendly.com/24fingers"&gt;free Strategy Session&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

Managing Director

business.connected: Create highly effective landing pages

Watch back: Insight into creating highly effective landing pages for your business

Marketing and campaigns manager at Enterprise Nation. Love finding independent places to eat and drink!

Marketing & campaigns manager

Beauty and Wellness exchange

Are you looking to start or grow a beauty or wellness brand? Join our group of like-minded small businesses and start-ups who are looking to start and grow as well.

Manage your Google Ads campaign

&lt;p&gt;We are a Google Partner agency based in Bristol with more than 10 years experience in helping businesses of all sizes and industries with their Google Ads campaigns, including:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;Google search ads&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;Google display &amp;amp; remarketing&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;Google shopping&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;Gmail sponsored ads&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;YouTube video ads&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We focus on what matters - delivering you sales rev

&lt;p&gt;Accounting is our superpower. We are your new secret weapon in the battle to evolve your business. With our team of experts at your fingertips, all your accounting worries, from receipts to compliance and advisory, are a thing of the past. The team at Finance Box are able to take on whatever it is that you need. We can take on the simple bill processing through to all the compliance and further still to advisory services. Each service can be switched on or off as you need. Our pricing is super-transparent and you only pay for what you need at each service level.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I'm Steve, CEO - but more commonly known as 'The Mechanic' as I am often building automations to make busines easier.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

Steven Case

&lt;p&gt;Accounting is our superpower. We are your new secret weapon in the battle to evolve your business. With our team of experts at your fingertips, all your accounting worries, from receipts to compliance and advisory, are a thing of the past. The team at Finance Box are able to take on whatever it is that you need. We can take on the simple bill processing through to all the compliance and further still to advisory services. Each service can be switched on or off as you need. Our pricing i

Local councils 'ignoring law' on prompt payment to small suppliers

You might also like…

Get business support right to your inbox