Tuesday 12th March, 2013

Costain has added its name to the list of companies that have signed the Prompt Payment Code, committing to pay suppliers on time. It will be joining construction group, Morgan Sindall who also recently signed the code. Despite this positive move for the UK's SMEs, the construction industry is still missing some big names that have yet to sign up.  According to The Construction Index these include Galliford Try, BAM, Vinci, Wates, Amec and ISG.

The Institute of Credit Management (ICM) recently published a list of 1,334 signatories that have signed the Prompt Payment Code initiative so far. ICM reported the latest signatories to join the Code within the last month include; Britvic, Paypoint and QinetiQ.

Philip King, Chief Executive of the ICM, says that there has been a noticeable shift in businesses' response to the issue of payments in recent months: "Political and media pressure have no doubt helped to bring the late payment debate out into the open" he says.

Although signing up to the payment code is a move in the right direction, and many of the signitaries do so intending to help their smaller suppliers - Phil Orford, chief executive of the Forum of Private Business has said that some companies are..."cynically using the Prompt Payment Code to boast of their ethical credentials to the wider public, when in fact they are anything but to their suppliers. No one in their right mind can think Unilever's 90-day payment terms are 'prompt', so why should they be allowed to sign the Prompt Payment Code? It's a ridiculous situation which has to stop."

He added: "Companies like Unilever and Sainsbury's are hoodwinking the public for their own PR purposes by signing, while the small firms who supply them see absolutely no change to cripplingly long payment times."