Essex Police has become the first Police Force to commit to pay the invoices for all SMEs (small to medium enterprises) within ten working days instead of the standard public sector payment terms of 30 calendar days.
Ken Cocksedge, acting Director of Finance at Essex Police said: “The economic conditions are particularly challenging at the moment. We see it as our social responsibility to support SMEs who trade with us. We spend about £28million each year with more than 700 SMEs of which £15million is with Essex-based firms. We hope this measure will help our smaller suppliers to maintain service standards and keep prices keen in the long term.”
This commitment will also support plans to recruit an additional 600 police officers for Essex.
Mr Cocksedge added: “Essex Police has pledged to make Essex the safest county in the country. We have a reputation here for doing business differently – in September we launched Operation Apex which is our plan to bring an additional 600 police officers to the streets of Essex over the next three to five years. By continuing to support local businesses we hope to continue to obtain value for money with local suppliers to release savings to pay for these extra officers, which will ultimately benefit the public we serve.”
Essex Federation of Small Business, Crime Against Business spokesman, Ken Wickham said: “Essex FSB is very pleased Essex Police appreciate that cash flow is the life blood for any small business and that paying invoices within ten days instead of the usual 30 days is a tremendous help.
“Small businesses are usually loyal suppliers who do their utmost to achieve high levels of customer satisfaction by going that extra mile and it is great to see that Essex Police is now going that extra mile to help those small businesses cope with these serious economic challenges.”
