With large businesses insisting on payment terms of as much as 120 days, many suppliers could be waiting up to five months to be paid for work.

The average small firm had £45,000 worth of unpaid invoices at the end of 2011, Bacs said, up from £39,000 in the first half of the year.

Big businesses are least likely to pay suppliers on time, behind the public sector, small and medium-sized firms and individuals, Bacs added.

A report by the all party Parliamentary Small Business Group published this week recommended that all companies supplying the public sector should be forced to sign the ‘Prompt Payment Code’, a voluntary scheme which promotes good payment practice says The Telegraph.

However, the report also noted that there is currently “no adequate enforcement” of the Code so “alternative solutions” may have to be considered.

Rules which allow companies to charge interest on unpaid bills are rarely used and the Government has admitted that late payment legislation “hasn’t worked”.

Philip King, chief executive of the Institute of Credit Management, said Government should pressure big business to improve their payment practices by only awarding public sector contracts to firms which “can demonstrate a genuine commitment” to good payment practices.

The ‘Mind the Gap – Raise the Cap’ campaign aims to persuade the government to raise the current weekly childcare voucher allowance of £55 to £75. The main aim of the campaign is to bridge the gap between the rising cost of childcare and the amount parents can exchange for childcare vouchers, which has not changed since 2006.

Childcare vouchers are a popular employee benefit as they are non taxable, National Insurance exempt and they help working parents save money on the cost of childcare. Rolled out as a salary sacrifice scheme, working parents can exchange part of their salary, currently up to £55 per week, for childcare vouchers which can be used to pay for any registered childcare for children up to the age of 16. Tax and National Insurance is then calculated on the remaining salary after childcare vouchers are deducted.

Currently working parents can save up to £933 per year on the cost of their childcare and employers can save up to £402.36 per scheme user per year on National Insurance contributions.

At the centre of the campaign is an e-petition set up by Busy Bees Group Managing Director, John Woodward. Persuading the government to recognise the significance of the campaign requires 100,000 signatures, which will enable to campaign to be eligible for debate in the House of Commons. The aim is to achieve a policy change in the 2013 budget.

If the campaign is a success working parents will be able to save over £300 more per year, increasing the annual savings to over £1200. Both working parents in a household can join a childcare voucher scheme potentially saving a family more than £2400 per year on their childcare costs. Businesses offering a childcare voucher scheme will be able to save almost £550 on National Insurance contributions per scheme user, per year for basic rate taxpayers.

John Woodward said: “The cap allowance was set by the government at £55 per week and this has not changed since 2006. As the UK’s largest provider of childcare, serving more than 15,000 children, we understand the pressures on working parents. We feel the government should do much more for working parents to help with childcare costs, however we must be realistic. We want the campaign to receive the attention it deserves from the government and for it to achieve its aim. Therefore, we think that £75 is an achievable target, which will make a real difference to working parents.”

“Most bosses of SME’s have invested their life’s work in their businesses and they are doing everything within their power to keep their companies afloat. They are not getting the support they need from government policy.”

“The coalition has to ensure SME’s have the necessary funding and fiscal environment to be able to continue growing if they are to contribute the jobs that are so vital to the UK’s recovery,” said Mr Davies

Mr Hague said British business needed to‘re-orientate’ itself, and find new export markets in expanding economies like India, Thailand and Indonesia.

“There’s only one growth strategy: work hard,” said the Foreign Secretary.

“They (bosses) should be getting on with the task of creating more of those jobs and more of those exports, rather than complaining about it,” he said.

“It’s all very well to tell people to find new markets but the government needs to support business with sensible policies that support their hard work,” said Mr Davies.

Overall marketing mix in 2012

The overall marketing mix shows SMEs are dividing their activity over several platforms. Email and corporate websites are the most popular (17 per cent) with social media, networking and direct marketing tied in third place (13 per cent).

Their responses show digital platforms are proving popular with SMEs. However the traditional B2B platforms of networking, direct marketing are still important routes to market.

SME marketing budget priorities in 2012

The second part of the survey questioned which marketing platforms are allocated the largest part of the SMEs budget in 2012. Respondents could only chose one marketing platform when answering this question.

The responses show that traditional B2B marketing platforms, such as exhibitions and direct marketing, and still attracting the lions share of the SME budget (18% each). The top spot is shared with the corporate website, demonstrating SMEs place great emphasis on getting their website right.

Platforms such as email marketing and social media (4% each), which were popular choices in the first question are not attracting significant budget share. This could demonstrate the lower cost of marketing activity on these platforms, or it could indicate SME owners see those platforms as useful, but not essential.

Total marketing budgets in 2012

Given the still delicate nature of the economy it would be expected that marketing budgets are under pressure in 2012. Indeed 39% of respondents indicated their marketing budget for 2012 was under £10,000.

32 per cent of respondents are planning on spending about £100,000 on marketing activity in 2012, showing some degree of confidence amongst the larger SMEs. The other 28% are spending between £10,000 and £50,000.

Overall the B2B Customer Management Marketing Spend 2012 survey shows SMEs are being ‘forward-looking’ in their marketing approach and bringing digital and social platforms into the marketing mix. However they are still focussing the main part of their budget allocations on the traditional routes to market.

Mr Hayes said: “Skills are central to the UK economy and our long-term competitiveness and we’re making excellent progress with the biggest apprenticeship programme in modern history.

“That’s why the Government has put building workforce capabilities through training at the heart of our economic strategy.

“But there’s always more to do and because we know the skills system must be demand driven, we’re determined to put employers in the driving seat. With unprecedented focus and funding we’ll match and beat competitor nations who have always valued vocational education.

“This pilot fund will give employers the space and opportunity for greater ownership of the vocational skills agenda encouraging innovation and new thinking as we provide the platform for sustainable growth.”

Testing the impact of greater employer ownership of the vocational training agenda is the key objective of the pilot. The vision of greater employer ownership has been championed by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) – a non-departmental public body that provides strategic leadership on skills and employment issues.

Charlie Mayfield, Chairman of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills and the John Lewis Partnership, said: “The pilots are all about encouraging innovation and partnership in an area that is critical to the growth and success of our economy. I look forward to seeing what changes we can start to make as a result of these investments.”

The winners of the bids will be announced later in the year.

Increasing workforce mobility and worker empowerment are being fed by legislation emphasising work/life balance and the increasing consumerisation of IT. Recent statistics revealed more than a quarter of email opens now occur on mobile devices.

This increasing use of consumer IT devices to perform corporate duties has rendered the task of in-house expenses management yet more difficult. An increasingly mobile workforce means claims are splintered among multiple sources, making the money trail harder to follow. And this is at a time when business is striving as never before to reduce admin costs and stay compliant.

With growing numbers of people working from home or on the move, employees expect to be able to work and access corporate data on personal devices and to shop around online for the best T&E deals. As a result businesses can no longer take a paper-based or PC-centric approach to expenses-management.

Successful businesses in this changing economy will be those that embrace mobility and give employees the flexibility to work from any location or device. Clever finance departments will take advantage of this mobility to speed up processes and increase efficiency using cloud-based expense management tools.

By switching from traditional paper based solutions to automated expenses-management systems, the Aberdeen Group believes companies can slash their admin costs by over 50 per cent. Interestingly, this also increases compliance by as much as 30 per cent, as companies can conduct best-practice audits, and instantly reimburse employees.

And now, as mobile devices herald the decline of the PC, new smartphone apps, the latest weapon in the war on waste, are giving employees the ability to submit claims and evidence “on the go”.

By empowering employees to instantly upload their claims and evidence when booking T&E, finance departments can monitor claims in real-time from anywhere, reimburse employees instantly, and conduct first class audits. As well as swiftly spotting emerging trends and inconsistencies in spending and giving them the power to block inaccurate claims, by issuing policy warnings as they happen, to eliminate errors.

This person-centric approach to expenses enables companies to identify, reimburse and reward the most honest employees whilst excessive or fraudulent claimants will be more easily spotted and monitored.

Modern “i-workers” who are accustomed to technology built around ease-of-use, meanwhile, will not tolerate rigid expenses systems that make it hard to choose the best travel deals or submit claims on the move. Smartphone expense management applications can turn the trend for worker-empowering consumer-IT to their advantage, by making it easier for employee’s to submit claims and evidence “on the road”. Smart-phone apps, integrating with phone cameras can capture electronic receipts, removing any excuse for losing evidence or adding on late “extras” and helping remote Finance Departments keep to rack of expenditure, even while global employees are on the move.

Automated expenses-systems like WebExpenses cannot eradicate fraud: ultimately every technology depends upon a degree of trust in its users. But it offers companies a golden opportunity to cut waste while restoring employees trust in the system.

This is the key finding of the new report, ‘What if …? Exploring attitudes towards risk’, based on interviews with UK senior managers. This is despite the growing need to attract and retain the best talent and the relatively high probability of talent leaving or becoming unavailable for work.

The findings of the report, commissioned by Vodafone, also found that although one in five employees are reported to be actively considering a job move in the next twelve months, only 29 per cent of UK managers say employee defection to another firm is a significant concern.

This compares to 59 per cent who cite IT systems failure and 36 per cent who list damage to facilities through fire or flood as key concerns.

While respondents accept that talent risks such as employee defection or illness are more probable than environmental risks, for example, only 10 per cent of those surveyed say they have robust plans in place to respond to talent loss. In comparison, 37 per cent say they that they have such plans in place for the loss of key facilities through fire, flood or similar events.

“This research shows that businesses should place a greater emphasis on identifying and managing talent risk as part of a business continuity management strategy. This is not only best practice but it will contribute to business excellence – essential in such a tough economic climate.” added Kelly.

Overall, UK businesses have become a lot more aware of risk and response in
recent years, and there is greater recognition of the need for business
continuity management.

Four fifths of SMEs have these kinds of plans at the ready. However, smaller businesses are less prepared, with only two-fifths of organisations with up to 10 employees having continuity plans.

Neither Portas or Ramsay are strangers to turning around struggling ventures on television shows, but this is the first time that the Michelin starred chef will work in a mentoring capacity, as both will be providing the hotel’s workers training and support.

Members of the public will be able to book a room in the hotel, visit the spa or take a table at the restaurant - all for a charge as the hotel will also be run to raise funds to further help unemployed people get a break.

The pair will set a major challenge or event in the hotel every day to test the skills of the staff and it is believed that they will be joined during the process with other regular Channel 4 faces with Gok Wan, Nick Hewer, Sarah Beeny and Phil Spencer all expected to appear.

There are no details at the moment as to which hotel will feature or where it will be located.

Channel 4′s CEO said: “If Channel 4 were to run a hotel it would probably be the best hotel in the world and that’s exactly what Hotel Britannia will aim to be as our biggest
talent put themselves on the line to help kick-start careers for young people in the
service industry.”

A wide variety of entries were submitted throughout the Virgin Unite competition, including a solar powered football, the world’s most ethical pants and a train carriage that allows passengers to share business ideas and strategy. Raise5, a donation-based start-up, was voted for by the public and made the overall Top 10 ideas, which were then put to a panel of inspiring judges, including Sir Richard.

Discussing the Raise5 concept, Sir Richard said: “It’s simple, entrepreneurial and it works. There were so many fantastic entries but Raise5 stood out for me as a perfect example of how anyone can think differently to affect change. Raise5 is about leveraging your skills,
talents and creativity as a force for good and that’s exactly what we’re asking business leaders to consider in the way that they approach the world of work. The sheer number of companies that entered the competition who want to be successful and profitable but also want to do more to help people and the planet is inspirational. Profit alone is now not the only driving force for many businesses”.

Mike Tang, founder of Raise5, said: “There were so many fantastic entries but we took an idea that we felt could genuinely help. We’re so happy that our idea has been recognised by Sir Richard Branson. We wanted to create a new way to give back which is fun and convenient. Looking around, everyone has talents, so we thought how can we turn those talents into donations? And that’s when we came up with the idea for Raise5. We’re so looking forward to the next steps for Raise5, working with Virgin Unite and getting the Screw Business As Usual message out there”.

As part of the prize, Raise5 will get to meet frontline leaders who are making a difference, share ideas with fledgling business owners at the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship, South Africa and then get to spend several days in glorious Africa with Sir Richard and the rest of the group, experiencing animals in the wild and fantastic luxury at Ulusaba, Sir Richard’s private game reserve.

Meanwhile, the French economy recorded zero growth in the first quarter, after growth of 0.1 per cent at the end of 2011.

Figures released later on Tuesday are expected to show that the eurozone as a whole has returned to recession.

Compared with the same a quarter a year earlier, the German economy grew by 1.7 per cent.

The German statistics agency Destatis said growth in the first quarter was due to a rise in exports and higher domestic consumption.

The return to growth means Germany has avoided a so-called double-dip recession.

In contrast, the French growth figures failed to outperform analysts’ expectations, and the growth figure for the final quarter of last year was revised down to 0.1 per cent from 0.2 per cent.

“There was no good surprise,” said Philippe Waechter at Natixis Asset Management. “There was weak consumption [and] no investment.”

The French GDP figures come on the day of the inauguration of the new French President Francois Hollande, who has vowed to boost economic growth.

In the run up to the presidential election, in which he ousted Nicolas Sarkozy, he campaigned hard for measures focusing on stimulating the economy alongside the austerity measures that have been adopted across the eurozone.

He will visit German Chancellor Angela Merkel later on Tuesday to make the case for growth.

Mr Hollande believes that growth rather than austerity is the best way for governments to reduce their debts, a view that is being discussed more widely as the eurozone economy continues to struggle and increasing numbers of Europeans voice their anger at austerity.

The eurozone economy contracted by 0.3 per cent in the final quarter of last year, and many analysts believe growth figures published later this morning will show further contraction in the first quarter of this year. If they are correct, the eurozone will be back in recession.