Major puts cards on league tables

Prime Minister John Major has thrown his weight behind a scheme to break the crippling spiral of debt that affects many UK small businesses.

Major has endorsed a report which recommends that government departments and local authorities publish league tables of the time taken to pay creditors.

Dave Pearce, director of specialist IT credit checker Graydon UK, said: 'The problem for small dealers is that large organisations often pay small suppliers, and small bills, last.' Pearce said that although 30-day invoices were the norm for the industry, many suppliers took twice as long to pay.

The Government has stopped short of promising a statutory right to interest payments on late payment by commercial companies, which has been demanded by the British Chamber of Commerce.

But the Lord Chancellor's Department has been ordered by the Prime Minister to look at ways of streamlining the procedure for small businesses that have to resort to legal action to get outstanding cash.

The late payment of invoices bankrupts 5,000 businesses each year.