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The time large businesses take to pay their suppliers has DECREASED

ended 14. July 2026

New government data published today shows that, since reporting started in 2018, the time large businesses take to pay their suppliers has decreased. In 2025, large businesses paid their suppliers in 32 days, unchanged from 2023 and 2024, but down from 35 days in 2018.

The proportion of invoices paid late by large businesses has been steadily decreasing apparently, too. In 2025, large businesses paid 15% of invoices late, a 1% decrease from 2024 and down from 25% in 2018 (a 10% decrease).

Other key findings below. Any thoughts on this data, how late payments impact businesses, and experiences of being paid late, send them across ASAP as story being written this AM.

  • Large businesses in the ’Manufacturing’ sector have consistently had the longest payment times and among the highest proportions of invoices paid late, compared with other sectors.
  • Large businesses in London have consistently had the shortest payment times and among the lowest proportions of invoices paid late, compared with other regions.
  • 14% of the total value of invoices was paid late by large businesses (a new metric only available for 2025).
  • Large businesses submitted 11,178 valid reports, a 6.5% decrease from 2024. This decrease reflects a change in the scope of the reporting requirements, which reduced the number of businesses meeting the size thresholds for reporting in 2025.
     

6 responses from the Newspage community

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Samuel Mather-Holgate
Managing Director & IFA at Mather and Murray Financial
Calling this progress is setting the bar on the floor. A 32-day average payment time may look better than 2018, but for small firms it can still mean wages, rent and tax bills falling due before cash arrives. Fifteen per cent of invoices paid late is not a rounding error; it is a working capital crisis being pushed down the supply chain. Large businesses often have the balance sheets to absorb delays. Their suppliers usually do not. Late payment is not just poor admin, it is interest-free borrowing from smaller companies that can least afford it. The fact manufacturing remains worst affected should worry ministers, because those are exactly the firms we say we want to invest, hire and grow.
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Nouran Moustafa
Practice Principal & IFA at Roxton Wealth
The direction of travel is positive, but 15% of invoices still being paid late is not a victory lap. For a large business, a delayed invoice may be an admin issue; for a small supplier, it can mean wages, VAT, rent or stock cannot be paid on time.

Late payment effectively forces smaller firms to provide an interest-free loan to businesses with far greater financial strength. It damages cash flow, increases borrowing costs and can stop otherwise healthy companies from hiring, investing or taking on new work.

The figures also show that sector matters. Manufacturing businesses often face high upfront costs, long supply chains and tighter margins, so slow payment can be particularly damaging.

The fix is simple: clearer payment terms, automatic invoice tracking, named accountability inside large firms and meaningful enforcement when agreed deadlines are repeatedly missed. Thirty-two days may be better than 35, but suppliers should not have to chase money they have already earned.
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Harvey Dhillon
Founder & CEO at Zmartly
The headline is genuinely good news, and worth saying: large firms now pay in 32 days on average, and late invoices are down from a quarter to 15 per cent since 2018. But an average can keep falling while your own invoice sits unpaid. This year one in seven still landed late, and the figure that stands out is the new one: 14 per cent of the total value of invoices was paid late. That is close to a pound in every seven, and for a small supplier it is rarely a small sum. It is often the biggest invoice of the month. The firm that feels it is the small manufacturer or subcontractor at the end of the chain, still paying its own staff and VAT on time while the money it is owed sits with a much larger customer. Being owed money is not the same as having it, and that gap is how a profitable business runs out of cash. The useful part is that this data is public. Before you take on a big customer, check their payment record, agree your terms in writing, and chase from day one, not day sixty
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Matthew Knight
Chief Freelance Officer at Freelancing.Support
This is hugely positive news, and in the last 12 months, Emma Jones, the government's Small Business Commissioner, has been doing amazing work including getting new laws to come down harder on late paying businesses to be put through the house. However, large businesses are only a portion of the problem - and many freelancers and small businesses still face days endlessly chasing late and unpaid invoices. We cannot let this good news slow down the good fight.
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Ed Rimmer
CEO at Time Finance
The UK has been trying to legislate its way out of a late payment crisis for nearly three decades, and this improvement is really positive. For the UK’s 5.7 million SMEs, we still have a way to go. The introduction of the new Small Business Protections Bill marks the latest - and arguably most forceful - attempt to break the deadlock. In the lending and commercial finance sector, we know all too well how overdue this intervention is. Late payment acts as a structural drag on SMEs’ growth, trapping vital funds that should be used for investment. The issue of late payment is so deeply rooted in business culture. If we want real change, the Government and corporate boards must stop reviewing prompt payment as a tick box exercise and start treating it as a core piece in rebuilding the UK’s economy.
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Tony Robinson OBE
Chair at Yorkshire in Business Limited
This is government and big-company spin, a distraction from the real issue in our 30-years-and-counting #PayIn30Days or less campaign.

UNFAIR 30 days plus (e.g. 45 - 120 days) PAYMENT TERMS between any size of company cause the cash flow jam.

5M self-employed people and micro business owners who rarely supply Big cos wait 60 days because of the 'unfair payment terms' cash flow logjam.

We get into debt and depression because we have monthly crazy-high unavoidable bills to pay - utilities, taxes, rates, rent, mortgages, comms, etc.

For vulnerable start-ups it's one strike, and they're out.

BigCo, reporting, audits, codes of practice, pledges, the Small Business Commissioner's Office, and the new legislation of a 60-day cap on payment are all part of the 'late', 'prompt' payment and 'biggest crackdown' spin and distraction.

Government should not work with, fund, or accept tenders and lobbyists from ANY company that does not #PayIn30Days or less ALL its bills ALL the time.