The move comes in the wake of the collapse of local contractor Weldon Plant which went into administration last week blaming its bankers RBS.

Chief executive of Corby Council Chris Mallender told the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph: “There was some research done to show that local authorities are really slow at paying their bills so we wanted to ensure that we were not one of those authorities.

“We are trying to do everything we can to help local businesses to survive this recession.

“So last month we paid 99.5 per cent of our bills within 30 days, and 84.8 per cent of our bills within 10 days.”

Deputy leader of Corby Council Mark Pengelly said: “It’s something we’ve wanted to do to help our local businesses because we’ve seen how hard times are for them, especially considering what happened with Weldon Plant.

“This is the quickest and most effective way we have of helping them with cashflow.”