Tis the season for unpaid invoices: The growing crisis facing tradespeople

9 December 2024, 11:25

Tradespeople across the UK are owed on average almost £4,000 in unpaid invoices, leaving many concerned about their finances as we head into Christmas.

I am a lighting technician by trade and work mostly across London in homes as well as larger venues such as hotels. I'm currently waiting on payments of around £3,500 from various customers – some of it dating back six months.

It leaves me in a difficult position – not just for my own business and my own finances but I also have to pay other tradespeople I have brought into a job. Delays in payment mean that in order to insure myself against any potential lost income, I am forced to take on more work just to cover my back, which naturally means I then struggle to find time to chase up payments.

It's an issue that is unfortunately becoming more and more common across the UK, especially when working with wealthier customers where a few hundred quid doesn't seem like much to them, but to us sole traders it can make a huge difference.

-Arlo Masters is a lighting technician in North London

Tradespeople in the UK are the backbone of our nation. They work to keep the lights on in our homes. However, for trade professionals and skilled workers across the UK, these efforts are not always recognised.

Ford Pro has been working with tradespeople and its customers to understand what challenges exist in their day-to-day work life – from focus groups of real tradespeople to community surveys of over 1,000 homeowners, customers and tradespeople – late invoice payments have emerged as the single most detrimental thing impacting their work. And we at Ford Pro want to support them on these issues, whilst helping them communicate better with customers to avoid these types of issues.

Our latest piece of research has found that on average tradespeople in the UK are owed almost £4,000 in unpaid invoices which are paid on average 35 days after receipt – totalling a £3.5 billion debt owed to the UK’s tradespeople. 71% have even faced outright refusal to pay for completed work, and one in five have admitted to needing to take out payday loans to cover the missing income.

Times are tough for so many, and the cost-of-living crisis is still impacting the lives of homeowners and tradespeople. We wanted to use this research as a way of bridging the gap by providing tradespeople with guidance on what they can do to make invoices clearer, whilst helping homeowners see the impact that not paying an invoice on time can have beyond the trade and on their own personal lives.

-Mandy Dean is the Director of Commercial Vehicles for Ford UK and Ireland

________________

LBC Views provides a platform for diverse opinions on current affairs and matters of public interest.

The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official LBC position.

To contact us email views@lbc.co.uk