British businesses are paying their bills faster compared with the same time last year, but have slowed the pace during the past quarter.

British businesses are paying their bills faster compared with the same time last year, but have slowed the pace during the past quarter.

From June to September this year, UK businesses paid their bills an average of 22.61 days late, compared to an average of 21 days for the previous quarter, according to research from Experian.

However, year-on-year performance improved slightly with businesses now half a day quicker than the 23.17 days seen in the same quarter last year.

The fastest payers were micro businesses, which have one to two employees, while the largest businesses of more than 500 continue to be the slowest, the analysis finds.

Businesses in Britain’s South-West saw the best improvement in payment performance year-on-year, improving from 18.36 to 16.68 days late.

But the three regions where late payment times worsened were Yorkshire, raising from 23.67 days to 24.34 days, Scotland from 23.76 to 25.51 and the North-West from 26.43 to 27.15.

Agriculture, forestry and fishing trade remained the fastest paying sector at 9.86 days and the postal and telecommunications sector is now the slowest, averaging 39.13 days – almost 17 days slower than the national average.