AROUND 2,000 smaller firms could be saved from closure each year if the country’s late payment culture is tackled, it is claimed.

The Federation of Small Business said the onus is on governments in Westminster and Holyrood to deliver a new push to stop big businesses paying their smaller suppliers unacceptably late.

The FSB is launching a campaign called Fair Pay, Fair Play which calls on UK politicians to compel the biggest companies to appoint non-executive directors for payment practice and supplier relationships.

It said it is urging ministers to introduce fines for companies who do not publish legally required payment data.

North of the border, the small business campaign group is urging the Scottish Government to bar the worst late payers from devolved public contracts.

It is calling on Scottish public bodies to ask large potential suppliers of evidence that they are a responsible payer before awarding taxpayer funded contracts.

Four in five – 84 per cent – of UK smaller businesses in supply chains say that they have been paid late, the FSB claimed.

Andrew McRae, FSB Scotland policy chair, said: “Our lamentable payment culture isn’t a new phenomenon, but that doesn’t make it any more acceptable.

“As we face the possibility of a sustained period of economic turbulence, we can’t see bigger businesses use their smaller customers as a free source of credit.”