Overall performance improves but majority of firms not hitting target on 60 days payments
Just a handful of contractors are meeting a government target to pay suppliers within 60 days – while the rest risk being banned from winning new public sector contracts.
The government has repeatedly threatened to freeze companies from new public contracts, starting next month, unless they have paid 95% of all invoices within 60 days in their two previous six month reporting periods.
But the latest official data on how long firms take to pay their suppliers, covering the six months up to the end of June, show only four contractors are now hitting the target.
And only one of them – Willmott Dixon, which paid 98% of invoices within 60 days – also hit the target in its previous reporting period.
The other