The government presented its changes to late payments in March as a victory for small businesses.

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The reality is that it is anything but.

Labour rowed back on plans to reduce the maximum payment term from 60 days to 45 days over the next five years under pressure from big business, although it did give new enforcement powers to the Small Business Commissioner, Emma Jones.

A mandatory interest at 8 per cent above the Bank of England base rate will apply to overdue invoices. Boards are now required to disclose payment performance in annual reports.

Terry Corby made a compelling case in this publication for this exact kind of enforcement ahead of the announcement. He named and shamed the worst offenders, but pointed out that greater transparency alone won’t fix the broken enforcement system that lets many of Britain’s biggest businesses go scot-free.

But it was the maximum payment term reduction that would really have moved the needle for small businesses, 38 of which go out of business every day due to late payments and a problem that costs the economy £11 billion a year.

Lobbying from Britain’s largest businesses, who complained it would squeeze........

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