Businesses are failing to reduce the time taken to pay their bills, with larger firms the worst offenders, new research shows.
Companies currently take an average 60 days to settle invoices, almost exactly the same as last year, according to the study by business information specialists Experian.
The analysis of 366,633 companies showed despite legislation introduced in 1999 to tackle late payment, the average time taken to pay debts is still two days longer than before the regulations became law.
Firms of all sizes have got worse at paying up, Experian said, but large businesses are the tardiest.
Big firms take an average 80.6 days to pay their suppliers - often smaller businesses - while small companies don't pay up for an average 59.2 days.
Both figures were up on that recorded in 2005 although the gap between large and small companies is widening, the report showed.
In 1997, large corporates took an average 72.5 days to pay their bills, eight days less than they do now. Small companies settled debts after 55.2 days, four days less than currently.
Richard Lloyd, managing director of Experian's Business Information Division, said: "Late payment by suppliers plays a major part in business failure and a rapidly deteriorating payment trend is very often a warning sign that a company is in financial difficulties and heading towards insolvency.
"Companies owe it to their shareholders and employees to ensure that they protect themselves from customers that simply pay late and those that are suffering cash flow problems by checking the payment record of prospects and customers - even if they've been customers for years."
