FSB Policy Activity 2019
Fair Pay Fair Play
In 2019, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) launched the Fair Pay Fair Play campaign to raise awareness about the issue of late payments affecting small businesses in the UK. The campaign achieved considerable success, with the government adopting two of its three proposed reforms. This document provides an overview of some of the key points of the campaign.
Poor payment practice is an epidemic plaguing far too many small businesses in the UK. The damaging impact of such practices was brutally exposed after the collapse of Carillion. Unreasonable payment terms, supply chain bullying and late payments are just some of the ways that some big businesses use their dominant position to squeeze suppliers. Sadly, many small firms do not survive the crippling impact of this behaviour. The Government has been proactive in attempting to stamp out the worst kind of poor payment practices but more must be done and it must be done now. We need stronger action to send a clear message that paying late and supply chain bullying are not okay. Our three point plan hopes to achieve fair pay and fair play for small businesses and the self-employed. The reforms we are calling for are not be the silver bullet that will end poor payment practices tomorrow but they will certainly go a long way to stamping it out.
Campaign News FSB scooped the award for Trade Body Campaign of the Year at the recent PRCA Public Affairs Awards with our Fair Pay, Fair Play Campaign. The judges admired our “cross-party, evidence-based” campaign to tackle late payments, which engaged grassroots members.