Heathrow urges big businesses to honour PPC
Heathrow has today committed to honouring the Prompt Payment Code (PPC) well into the future and has called on other big businesses to make the same pledge to their supply chains.
The call to action from Heathrow’s Chief Executive John Holland-Kaye is intended to provide SMEs with some certainty as they plan for Brexit, with commitment to honour the Prompt Payment Code coming as Heathrow is announced as the PPC’s new official sponsor at today’s Business Summit event in Birmingham
Heathrow is calling on major UK corporates to commit to paying suppliers on time by joining the airport in recommitting to the Prompt Payment Code.
Announced alongside the airport’s Business Summit in Birmingham, Heathrow’s Chief Executive John Holland-Kaye said the airport would continue to honour the Prompt Payment Code (PPC) well into the future. The airport’s support and new PPC sponsorship agreement marks a significant boost for the 1,400 SMEs and suppliers across Heathrow’s supply chain who will have certainty that they will continue to be paid on-time for services rendered.
Heathrow has a long track-record of supporting and developing Britain’s SMEs through initiatives like the PPC and its Business Summit programme which looks to increase the number of companies outside London working in the airport’s supply chain. The Government has recently criticised several businesses, particularly in the construction industry, for contravening the terms of the PPC and Heathrow hopes that its re-commitment today will inspire other businesses to do the right thing for Britain’s SMEs.
Today’s inaugural Birmingham Business Summit is an opportunity for businesses from the Midlands to connect with 20 of Heathrow’s biggest suppliers, including the likes of Fujitsu, Jacobs, Balfour Beatty and Capgemini. An estimated £93.4 million of new deals have been won by businesses as a result of the partnerships formed at Business Summits held at Heathrow’s flagship event and across the UK. The Birmingham event is the final stop in the airport’s regional UK Business Summit tour, ahead of the flagship Heathrow Business Summit at the airport next month.
This renewed commitment to SMEs comes as the airport continues to build momentum behind expansion. The airport is currently in the process of setting up four logistics hubs to source the skills and resources it needs to expand from businesses across the UK. The next stage of the selection process will be a pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) which opens in autumn this year. A shortlist of potential Logistics Hubs will be announced early in 2019, before the final four sites are announced later in the year, with construction set to begin at these sites in 2021.
Heathrow’s Chief Executive John Holland-Kaye, said: “Strong businesses must support SMEs, who are the life-blood of our economy. We are proud to commit to the Prompt Payment Code and call on other businesses to provide that same reassurance to UK SMEs as they make their plans for Brexit.”
Philip King, Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Credit Management which administers the Prompt Payment Code on behalf of BEIS said: "Heathrow joins more than 2,100 major businesses who have signed up to the voluntary Code and who are committed to paying their suppliers on time. We very much welcome their official sponsorship of the Code as an exemplar of best-practice in their management and support of the supply chain."
Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) Chairman, Policy and Advocacy, Martin McTague, said: "It is welcome to see Heathrow Airport reaffirm its commitment to the Prompt Payment Code and calling on others to do the same. We need to see more big businesses pledging to do what they can to put an end to poor payment practices that damage many of our small businesses every day. Paying small suppliers late has become an all too common occurrence and we are now in a place where late payments is just the cost of doing business. The Duty to Report data is shining a light into the practices of thousands of the UK’s large businesses.
"The Small Business Commissioner now has a role to play in ensuring larger businesses are practicing what they preach and where this is not the case firm action is taken. This needs to change. Although the Prompt Payment Code needs reform, it is a good place to start in fostering the culture change that needs to happen to ensure poor payment practices are eradicated.”