Lord Phillips of Sudbury
Main Page: Lord Phillips of Sudbury (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Baroness Wilcox
We are keen and happy members of the European Community, my Lords.
Lord Phillips of Sudbury
Will my noble friend contemplate more active support of small and independent businesses given that they are so much greater contributors to community life and local cohesion than their monstrous brothers?
Baroness Wilcox
The late payments that we have studied indicate that it certainly is not just large organisations which pay late. I say again that very often small and medium-sized companies do not make sure that their payment terms are right and do not do credit checks on companies. They should do credit checks no matter how big the company is. Nowadays we no longer hear the word factoring. When I ran my small business factoring was very important. If noble Lords look at today’s newspaper they will see a letter from the Royal Bank of Scotland which says just that. It advises small businesses to go to their bank and learn how to factor.