MANY companies in Worcestershire and Herefordshire are still clinging to the culture of late payment of invoices, despite legislation brought in three years ago aimed at making it easier to call in money.

According to logistics company Experian, which has carried out research on the subject, the average payment period across all industries has remained at 60.3 days since May 2001, two days longer than when the legislation was introduced in November 1998.

But Steve Kilmister, managing director of Experian's business information division, said despite no progress being made in the reduction of late payments, there were some encouraging signs the message was "getting through".

"For the first time, the number of industry sectors improving their payment times over the past six months has exceeded those taking longer - 18 are taking less time to pay against 11 sectors that are taking longer than six months ago," said Mr Kilmister.

However, he said, in several industry sectors, including property, construction and hotel and catering, there was a trend towards even later payment, especially among larger companies.

"This cancels out those companies speeding up payment," said Mr Kilmister. The average payment time among small companies had risen by almost half-a-day, to 50.1 days, he added.

The slowest sector to pay its suppliers, across all companies, was the oil industry, at an average of 72.4 days.

"Late payment can, and frequently does, lead to business failure and job losses," said Mr Kilmister. We expect the position to get worse as the economy gets tougher."