A survey into the speed at which councils pay firms for providing them with goods and services differs widely across the country.

According to the FPB, the research was timed to come a year after the government urged town halls to settle invoices within 10 days in order to help smaller businesses maintain their cash flows during the recession.

National chairman Noel Guilford said: "While some local authorities took instant action in response to Lord Mandelson’s calls for 10-day payment a year ago, this research appears to show that others are completely oblivious to it, even now.

"Businesses face a payment postcode lottery, some are paid within hours, but some have to wait more than a month. To most business owners, this will seem quite ridiculous, we’re part of a national economy, we’re in a national recession and you would expect a national policy on payment by public bodies. Cash flow is the single biggest concern for many smaller firms and the quicker you pay the money owed to them, the less likely they are to go out of business."

Overall, the average time local authorities take to pay invoices was almost double the 10-day target, at 19 days.

The UK average for the payment of bills within 10 days was 42%. There was a huge regional variation – in some regions the figure was as high as 52%, in others as low as 11%.

Guilford pointed out that work from local authorities is a lifeline for many smaller companies.

He said: "The vast majority of small firms doing business with local authorities can expect to be paid in a fraction of the time that they would when dealing with a typical big company. Generally speaking, Britain’s councils pay their suppliers far more swiftly than their private sector counterparts, and we rightly applaud them for that."