Insolvency experts Begbies Traynor have revealed a 25% increase in firms in “critical financial distress” in the last three months.
Official insolvency figures for 2023 predict that the year will see the highest number of business failures since 2009.
According to Xero’s quarterly small business index, small firms are waiting an average of 29.4 days to be paid by their customers.
Some of this could be avoided, according to the FSB (Federation of Small Businesses) if decisive action was taken on the issue of late payments.
The FSB has calculated that tougher action could prevent the closure of 50,000 businesses, many of them SMEs.
A recent survey commissioned by the AAT and the ACCA found that MPs want more powers to be handed to the Small Business Commissioner – a body introduced in 2016 to tackle unpaid invoices.
This is a something we at K2 support.
Tell us your stories and give us some ammunition to add to the growing pressure on the Government to provide more effective business protection and stiffer powers for the Small Business Commissioner.