As municipal elections approach, a major blind spot is emerging in public debate: local governments pay poorly and often very late. This reality discourages small businesses, weakens the local economy, and raises serious questions about how towns are managed.
The municipal election campaign reminds voters that while their local council is already costly to run, more concerningly, town halls are extremely slow and unreliable when paying their suppliers. As a result, more than 45% of small private service providers refuse to bid on public tenders out of fear they will not be paid.
Many voters who venture to campaign rallies are stunned to learn, straight from their mayor, that the city government is generally a very poor payer. City hall pays very late—and very poorly. Denis Le Bossé, the founding president of the cabinet Arc, isn’t surprised by this. His job is to collect unpaid debts and implementmanagementsystems designed to streamline operations and promote financial optimization.
"Every year, we study financial behaviors and relationships between clients and suppliers through a survey that tracks how things change over time. Generally speaking, we know that during economic crises, payment deadlines tend to stretch out. We know that payment terms are often used as a flexible buffer, but we also know that this practice is harmful because it creates a domino effect. A client who fails to pay puts their supplier in difficulty, who in turn will struggle to meet their own payment obligations."
What we also know is that public institutions—towns, local councils, county departments, and regional authorities—are much worse at paying on time than private clients. Hospitals, for instance, have an abysmal track record and are among the worst payers. They consistently pay their service providers very late for essentials like catering, maintenance, and medications. State government departments are the only ones that have made significant progress and now behave almost normally... but town halls remain the main offenders. Many of them are heavily in debt, too.
In general, late payments are not a minor issue in France. They affect a large majority of businesses and have worsened in recent years. In 2025, 86% of French companies reported experiencing late payments from clients, a proportion that increases year after year. France is among the laggards in Europe: the average payment delay far exceeds typical European practices, standing at 49 to 50 days on average in 2025 (compared to around 32 days in Germany, for example).
This means many invoices are not settled within contractual or legal deadlines, placing considerable strain on the cash flow of businesses, particularly small and micro-enterprises.
The Bank of France and the Payment Delays Observatory estimate that the overall average delay was between 13.6 and 14.1 days in France for 2024-2025, remaining above the European average. In other words, beyond agreed payment terms (often 30 days), payments for a large share of invoices are delayed by at least two weeks on average. Contrary to popular belief, even large companies do not always pay on time: fewer than half meet agreed deadlines. Smaller structures are especially vulnerable; if their clients pay late, more than half believe it seriously threatens their cash flow. A significant portion of business failures is now linked to cash flow problems caused by these late payments.
However, the ultimate taboo subject is the public sector, which continues to set a poor example. Late payments by public authorities (the government, local councils, and hospitals) are on average higher than in the private sector, averaging around 15 days late in 2025. Certain facilities, particularly hospitals and decentralized state services, can experience severe delays exceeding 20 days—and sometimes lasting more than a year.
In the private sector, as shown by the ARC-IFOP barometer, payment delays are also significant, though slightly lower than the overall average: around 17.3 days on average, depending on industry and company size. Certain large private companies report average payment delays of over 20 days, particularly in sectors such as administrative services, information, and private healthcare.
In 2017, the Ministry of Economy and Finance introduced an electronic invoicing platform to digitize management and help reduce payment delays. However, the system the Ministry was so proud of did not work miracles. Results did not improve; in fact, they got worse.
Companies do not delay payments without reason. Some have negotiated longer payment terms than usual (nearly 50 days). Others face cash flow issues and try to protect their liquidity—which puts pressure on the cash flow of smaller businesses, leads to bankruptcies, and shifts funds toward large payers.
This is a major issue for the French economy, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises. But what brings this into focus during the municipal elections is that voters are realizing local governments are poor payers, and when they pay late, they harm the health of local businesses. A local construction contractor ends up caught in a bind by the town hall, leading to distrust and a refusal to take on municipal work.
This is all the more true because municipalities, like the central government, are heavily indebted. Unlike the central government, however, they are closely monitored by regulatory bodies such as regional prefectures and the Court of Auditors. Some very small towns have high debt per capita and top the rankings (such as Vaujany or Les Angles, with tens of thousands of euros per resident), but these are generally specific cases tied to particular investment projects.
Among the more populous cities:
- Paris: very high total debt (nearly €10 billion), but a moderate average per resident.
- Levallois-Perret: historically often the most indebted city per resident in mainland France.
- Bagnolet and other towns in the inner Paris suburbs also rank very high on the list.
High debt does not always mean poor management. Some cities take on debt to finance major investment projects (infrastructure, schools, public facilities) that will pay off in the long run. Others may face historical constraints (heavy operational expenses, low self-financing capacity) that weigh on their accounts.
High debt does not necessarily lead to excessive payment delays, but clear explanations are lacking. The key is for the outgoing mayor to provide answers. Because if a local supplier is poorly paid, the taxpayer ultimately foots the bill... and taxpayers vote.