← Back to Reports

Creative Payment Practices Report 2025

•By PaymentCheck•Reports

UK Creative Sector Payment Practices: A Mixed Bag in 2025

The Numbers

  • Companies analysed: 38
  • Average PaymentCheck Score: 72.6/100
  • UK average: 50.0/100 (Creative is 22.6 points above)
  • Top score: 98/100
  • Bottom score: 35.7/100

What Stands Out

While the creative sector's average PaymentCheck score of 72.6 is substantially higher than the overall UK average of 50, the wide range between the best and worst payers – a 62.3-point difference – shows that consistency is still a real problem. It's interesting to see both well-known high street names and smaller, specialist firms in the top and bottom rankings, suggesting that size isn't always a reliable indicator of payment ethics.

Best Payers

  1. THAT LOT CREATIVES LIMITED - 98/100
  2. HOUSE OF FRASER LIMITED - 96.6/100
  3. AMAZON UK SERVICES LTD. - 94.6/100
  4. UNIVERSITY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE - 94.3/100
  5. PRIMARK STORES LIMITED - 93.2/100

Worst Payers

  1. INTEGRITY COMMUNICATIONS GROUP LIMITED - 35.7/100
  2. VOW EUROPE LIMITED - 37.3/100
  3. W & J LINNEY LIMITED - 40.5/100
  4. LITTLE, BROWN BOOK GROUP LIMITED - 40.6/100
  5. SKY CP LIMITED - 48.3/100

Regional Patterns

The regional data throws up some potentially misleading results, given the small sample size in some areas. Scotland's average of 82.9 is based on just one company, so it's hardly representative, and the same goes for East of England’s average of 72.1 from 3 companies. While London's score of 73.3 from 20 companies is more reliable, it's only slightly above the sector average, suggesting that being located in a major creative hub doesn't guarantee faster payments.

If you're consistently facing late payments, you can calculate the interest you're owed using a late payment calculator.

Ultimately, while the creative sector as a whole demonstrates better payment practices than the UK average, the stark contrast between THAT LOT CREATIVES LIMITED's near-perfect score of 98 and INTEGRITY COMMUNICATIONS GROUP LIMITED's worrying 35.7 indicates that there’s still significant room for improvement across the board.