Positive news from the UK Government overnight on tackling late payments.

The government has unveiled new measures to support small businesses and the self-employed by tackling the scourge of late payments, which is costing small businesses £22,000 a year on average and leads to 50,000 business closures a year.

I’ll be going through exactly what has been announced, and updating our guides to late payment to reflect any new changes, but here are some of the key points:

• Large businesses will need to include reporting in their annual reports on how they pay and treat small businesses
• Large companies to report their payment performance twice yearly on GOV.UK
• Introduction of a new “Fair Payment Code” later this year, which will include a set of fair payment principles that companies are required to sign up to, and that will reward businesses who pay promptly.
• Consultations around further policy measures to support small businesses on late payments

There’s more to come, and more details will be released later this year, but I’m glad to see the Labour government, the Department for Business and Trade, Gareth Thomas MP along with the support of Liz Barclay at the Office of the Small Business Commissioner, and organisations like Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) spearheading this change.