Forget interest rates. Even combined with some banks’ welcome promises to pass on the full rate cut to small and medium-sized enterprises, monetary policy remains a blunt instrument. Value added tax could prove a more subtle weapon. The decision to trim sales tax to encourage consumers to shop looks ineffectual. But the idea of flexing VAT payment schedules to alleviate pressure on companies’ cash flow has more promise.

Derrick Lyon, an FT reader, has proposed the government extend smaller companies’ payment terms from 30 days after the end of the VAT quarter to as much as 90 days. That would offset the growing pressure on suppliers from their own much larger customers. According to the Federation of Small Businesses, big companies now take 44 days to pay their bills. Mr Lyon, himself the owner and chief executive of a £22m-turnover business with 140 staff, calls his scheme a “tool for controlling corporate liquidity”.