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Hundreds of businesses in Flintshire get paid early with new Fasttrack and Freepay supplier scheme

Published: 28/07/2021

County Council and Oxygen Finance delighted with success of initiative

Flintshire and Oxygen Finance have joined forces to develop an innovative payment scheme for firms invoicing the County Council.  

Eligible, small, local suppliers are automatically enrolled in FreePay to receive faster payment, whilst the opportunity of signing up to the FastTrack scheme gives businesses the option of, as soon as an invoice is authorised, receiving payment ahead of the normal 30-day term. This helps their cash flow and can reduce reliance on loans or overdraft facilities.

Ben Jackson, Chief Executive of Oxygen Finance, commented:

“With Flintshire, we have introduced FreePay, which ensures eligible businesses get paid early.  We are delighted we can use this service which provides further benefits for smaller suppliers and is the right way to support local business.”

Larger businesses are eligible to join a similar service called Fast Track.   The service, which is also provided by Oxygen Finance applies a small, pre-agreed, rebate based on how quickly the payment was accelerated.

Over 350 suppliers have already benefitted from the programme and in April to June invoices totalling £2.3 million were processed.

Getting paid as early as possible provides significant benefits for both large and small companies and can make a substantial impact on the growth and development of businesses.  It has been estimated that late payment leads to 50,000 firms a year failing across the UK.  The scheme will support the local economy and keep people in work, which is vital as they look to come out of lockdown.

Flintshire’s Cabinet Member for Finance, Social Value and Procurement, Councillor Paul Johnson praised the service, saying:

“FastTrack provides significant benefits to our suppliers with hundreds of firms receiving payments quickly and efficiently.  This shows how well the process works.  We are seeing more firms signing up all the time as they realise that getting paid fast can be a lifeline, especially if they can access the FreePay option.” 

Oxygen Finance is the leading provider of early payment programmes in the UK, working with councils across the UK with thousands of suppliers using the specialist solution.  More information about the service provided to Flintshire can be found at: flintshire.gov.uk/en/Business/Selling-to-the-Council/FastTrack.aspx.