Council fails to hit payment targets

FSB Northern Ireland Region has published its findings on the performance of each of the 11 councils in paying their suppliers promptly.

Local authorities are required by the Executive to pay 90 per cent of their invoices within 10 working days, and by legislation to pay 100 per cent of their invoices within 30 calendar days.

While performance varied considerably across Northern Ireland, the prompt payment report found that no council area achieved these targets at any point during the last financial year.

For the financial year 2015/16, Mid and East Antrim paid a total of 25,136 invoices totalling over £42m. However, only 59 per cent of these were paid within 10 working days, while 87 per cent were paid with the 30 day limit.