The analysis conducted by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) and YouGov reveals that as a whole UK SMEs are set to miss out on almost £4 billion in interest over the next year due to failing to shop around for a better deal.

According to the report, nearly one in three (32%) construction companies in the UK earns less than 0.10% on their cash savings despite the best paying instant access deposit account offering a return of 1.40% and the best fixed-term deposit accounts offering returns of up to 2.50%.

The study found that in the three years since the EU referendum almost half (49%) of UK construction firms have increased their cash balances.

Few construction firms seem motivated to shop around for a better deal despite nearly two thirds (64%) admitted they are unhappy with the average rate of interest they receive on their cash deposits.

The biggest reason for this is the hassle that is involved with opening or setting up a new account. More than four in ten (42%) construction firms said this prevented them from finding a better deal with a challenger or non-high street bank.

Small businesses currently hold £191bn in instant-access accounts and receive an average rate of 0.41%, which means they are on track to earn £566 million in interest in the coming year, Cebr’s analysis found.

However, if they were to switch to a market-leading instant-access rate of 1.40%, they would earn £2.7bn in total in the next year – £2.1bn more than they are currently expected to earn.

Further, UK SMEs currently hold £141bn in fixed-rate deposit accounts earning on average 0.86%, meaning they are expected to earn £1.2bn in the next 12 months.

But if SMEs instead switched to the market-leading 2.50% one-year fixed rate, they would collectively earn £3.5bn in interest in the coming 12 months - £2.3bn more than they would have otherwise.

It means, in total, firms are expected to miss out on £4.4bn in interest in the next year by failing to shop around for better deals.

Andrew Thatcher, co-founder and co-managing partner of Flagstone, which commissioned the research, said: “This study shows that inertia in respect of cash deposits is a significant issue for UK SMEs and specifically for the construction industry. Nearly half of companies in the sector have increased their cash reserves in the last three years, 40% are very dissatisfied with the rate of interest they’re earning and 91% are earning less than the current Bank of England Base Rate.

“Each year, companies are missing out on billions of pounds of interest income because they are not proactive in moving their money, often citing the process of researching and opening new accounts as prohibitively complex and time-consuming.

“Firms that forego this extra cash could be missing out on the chance to increase profit, grow their business by hiring extra staff, or invest in productivity improvements. This may also be damaging to the UK economy.”