Three tasks for the new small-business tsar

Not before time, the government has appointed its first small-business commissioner. The priority now is to ensure he works on the right issues.

Welcome Paul Uppal, appointed last week to the new post of small-business commissioner. More than two years after the government first announced it would create the role, ministers promise the former Conservative MP and property-business owner will be up and running in the commissioner's office by the end of the year. And not before time.

Now that Uppal has the job, the priority must be to ensure he works on the right issues. This should begin with a focus on late payments, where larger organisations are routinely exploiting their purchasing power to take advantage of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), often with devastating consequences. Some 30% of payments to SMEs arrived late last year, according to the Federation of Small Businesses, compared with 28% in 2011. To reverse this trend, Uppal should push the government to strengthen the Prompt Payment Code, perhaps by making it compulsory for all organisations over a certain size to sign up, and by introducing penalties for non-compliance. But in the short term, he has to name and shame organisations that persist in supply-chain bullying, and develop processes for intervening quickly in disputes.

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David Prosser
Business Columnist

David Prosser is a regular MoneyWeek columnist, writing on small business and entrepreneurship, as well as pensions and other forms of tax-efficient savings and investments. David has been a financial journalist for almost 30 years, specialising initially in personal finance, and then in broader business coverage. He has worked for national newspaper groups including The Financial Times, The Guardian and Observer, Express Newspapers and, most recently, The Independent, where he served for more than three years as business editor.