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Their own payment-practices filing · gov.uk

Southern Water Services Limited pays suppliers in 42 days on average — within its stated 14–60 day terms

CRN 02366670 · Water & waste · 15 statutory reports on record · period to 31 Mar 2026

42daysavg time to pay · H1 2026

Their H1 2026 filing puts the average 28 days past the shortest term they state (14 days), still within their 60-day upper term.

Slower than mostvs a 31-day median across 6,104 recent filers
Their stated terms
14–60 days
Paid outside agreed terms
31% of invoices
Paid after 61+ days
4%
Reporting period
1 Oct 2025 – 31 Mar 2026
Source
their gov.uk filing, filed 8 May 2026

Self-reported figures from their statutory filing. How this is compiled.

Terms vs reality · their H1 2026 filing

Paid within their stated range — 42 against 14–60 days

The pattern · last 6 of 15 reports

35 → 42 days — slowing down

The read · computed from their figures

Southern Water Services Limited's H1 2026 filing puts their average at 42 days against stated terms of 14–60 days; 31% of invoices were paid outside agreed terms and 4% took 61 days or longer. Filed 8 May 2026.

The direction is slower: from 35 days in H1 2023 to 42 now — 7 days slower across their last 6 reports.

On the latest reported averages: Slower than 66% of the 62 large companies reporting in water & waste.

That is 15 statutory periods on record (earliest H2 2018) — a historical record, not a promise for a new invoice.

In their own words · from the filing

Standard payment terms

Southern Water policy is to establish any new contractual arrangement based on 60-day payment terms. However, as part of the regulated negotiated procurement process, we will consider the commercial benefit of negotiating shorter payment terms. In addition, as part of our approach to Corporate and Social responsibility we will consider the application of 30-day payment terms for appropriate Small and Medium Enterprises.

Dispute resolution

At Southern Water our aim is to resolve invoice queries or disputes in a timely manner and ensure payments are made at the earliest opportunity. All queries should be addressed in the first instance to [email protected] If the issue cannot be resolved by the accounts payable team, then the matter will be directed to the Purchase Order owner for resolution. Upon resolution of any queries or disputes if the invoice has become due it will be settled on the next payment run.

Other information

Southern Water operates a range of payment mechanisms including direct debit, Purchasing Cards and BACS. Our core system is SAP and we have a three-way match between the purchase order, goods receipt and invoice details. To avoid delays in payment Southern Water requests suppliers to:  Ensure that they have a valid and current purchase order number  Send all documents and credit notes by email to [email protected] in PDF format. If sending more than one invoice in the same email, please provide a separate file attachment for each document  Only submitting them when goods or services have been delivered  Not split invoices against multiple purchase orders If suppliers are unable to utilise email, invoices and credit notes should be sent direct to Accounts Payable, Southern

Every statutory report on record

Most recent first.

PeriodAvg daysOutside terms61+ daysFiled
H1 20264231%4%8 May 2026
H2 20254738%19%31 Oct 2025
H2 20243739%4%30 Oct 2024
H1 20243441%2%30 Apr 2024
H2 20233642%3%31 Oct 2023
H1 20233554%2%26 Apr 2023
H2 20223324%2%24 Oct 2022
H1 2022337%2%26 Apr 2022
H2 20213316%2%27 Oct 2021
H1 20213412%3%26 Apr 2021
H2 20203412%4%20 Oct 2020
H1 20203318%2%29 Apr 2020
H2 20195315%14%23 Oct 2019
H1 20195221%19%30 Apr 2019
H2 20185543%41%19 Oct 2018

On the public register · Companies House

Company record

Status
Active
Type
Private Limited Company
Incorporated
1 Apr 1989
Registered office
SOUTHERN HOUSE, WORTHING, BN13 3NX
3 outstanding charges — secured borrowing registered Accounts due 31 Dec 2027

Open the full record at Companies House.

Illustrative · working-capital arithmetic

What a 42-day cycle ties up

A worked example, not a finding. On a hypothetical £12k/month account, at a 42-day vs a 14-day payment cycle.

≈ £16,500
of invoicing outstanding at any one time on a 42-day cycle — about £11,000 more than the same account would carry at 14-day terms.

Late Payment Act. The Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 lets a supplier charge statutory interest and fixed compensation on invoices paid past agreed terms. Work out what a late invoice is worth → Whether it applies depends on your contract — check with an adviser.

Quick answers · Southern Water Services Limited

Are they getting slower or faster?
Their reported average has moved about 7 days slower over the window (35 → 42 days).
What's their typical pay point?
Their latest filed report puts the average at day 42; across their last 6 reports it ranged 34–47 days. Treat that as a historical reference point, not a promise for a new invoice.
Can I see what this means for my invoices?
Run the live check — it re-reads their record and their live Companies House file, on the amount you invoice.
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How UK payment reporting works

What is a Payment Practices Report?
UK companies and LLPs above a size threshold — broadly, two of: turnover over £54m, balance sheet over £27m, or more than 250 employees — must report twice a year, under the Reporting on Payment Practices and Performance Regulations 2017, how quickly they actually pay suppliers: the average time to pay, the share of invoices paid in 30 days or fewer, 31 to 60 days and 61 days or longer, and their standard payment terms. Those thresholds apply to financial years beginning on or after 6 April 2025; for earlier financial years they were £36m and £18m, with the same 250-employee test.
What does "paid outside agreed terms" mean?
The share of invoices paid later than the terms in the supplier contract. If terms are 30 days and an invoice is paid on day 45, it counts as paid outside terms, regardless of the headline average.
How often is this data updated?
Each report covers a six-month period and must be filed within 30 days of that period ending, so a company's record refreshes roughly twice a year. PaidLate re-reads the register as new reports are filed.
Is this official government data?
The underlying payment figures come from the company's own statutory filings on the gov.uk payment-practices service; company-status data comes from Companies House. PaidLate calculates trends, comparisons and summaries from those records. It does not use surveys or credit-agency scores.

How this is compiled. Built from official records only: Companies House and the gov.uk payment-practices service. The payment figures are self-reported — companies over the size threshold must file them by law and the board signs them off. No credit-agency data. The numbers are theirs; the plain-English read is ours. This is information compiled from public records under the Open Government Licence v3.0 — not a credit rating and not advice.

The 31-day comparison figure is the median across 6,104 companies with a current statutory report — every sector pooled, not an average of sector medians (how the figure is built).

Report PL-02366670 · latest period to 31 Mar 2026

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