National Print Database partner David Whitaker has condemned the Late Payment Act 1998 for having had no effect whatsoever after an Experian survey revealed that companies are taking two days longer, on average, to pay their bills than three years ago.

People just dont apply it, said Whitaker. They are so desperate to retain customers that the last thing they are going to do is charge them interest.

The Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 provided a statutory right to claim interest on late payment of commercial debts.The average payment period in November last year was 60.3 days, according to Experian. Large companies took 77.9 days, medium-sized companies took 59.3 days and small companies took 50.1 days to pay suppliers.

The worst offenders were large oil and gas companies. But at 59.94 days print, paper and packaging companies took 1.68 fewer days on average to pay suppliers than in May last year.

Steve Kilmister, managing director of Experians Business Information division said: Late payment can, and frequently does, lead to business failure and job losses we expect the position to get worse as the economy gets tougher.

Whitaker said January and February were notoriously bad for cash collection. He added: Last year was particularly bad but I expect this year to be even worse.

Story by Gordon Carson