The town sees invoices paid on average within seven days, 16 days faster than the national average of 23 days.
Conversely, Shrewsbury-based businesses sit at the bottom of the table, taking on average 46.5 days to settle payments.
The research study, from Crunch Accounting, uses anonymised data from over 3,500 small businesses across the UK based on Crunch’s online accounting software over the course of a year (2012/2013 financial year).
Other locations with conscientious business owners include North London (12 days invoice payment on average) Portsmouth (13 days) Nottingham (13 days), Carlisle (13 days) and Birmingham (14 days), which is sixth in the table for prompt payment.
Darren Fell, managing director of Crunch Accounting, says, ‘Cash flow is the lifeblood of any business, and we thought it would be interesting to get some ‘on the ground’ figures to show how good British businesses are at settling invoices.
‘It’s surprising to see such a huge difference across the UK regions, but we’d hope that businesses at the bottom of the league table take a few pointers from their peers in the top performing areas of Blackpool, North London and Portsmouth.’
Joining Shrewsbury at the bottom of table are businesses based in Bath (43 days average payment), Wigan (42 days), Newcastle-Upon-Tyne (40 days), Salisbury (39 days), Enfield (39 days) and Wolverhampton (39 days).
The news comes weeks after a survey by Santander Corporate & Commercial revealing that almost one in six UK small businesses say they are ‘very’ concerned about managing cash flow effectively over the next 12 months, with a further 27 per cent saying they are ‘quite’ concerned.
Overall, businesses paid bills a day later during the second quarter than at the same point last year, a recent study by Experian finds.
Companies paid 24.58 days beyond terms from April to June 2013 compared to 23.46 days for the same period in 2012.
Further reading on late payment
