HR staff continue to make keeping travel budgets to a minimum a priority in the workplace, it has been claimed.

Norman Gage, director of business travel at Advantage, said there has always been awareness among UK businesses that if their travel budgets total £150,000 or less there will only be a certain amount of trips they can take, which may cause for prioritisation.

"If they can reduce the cost of a journey then they can do an extra journey. This economic climate is a big fog screen for companies who knew and worked towards their travel budgets previously," he added.

Mr Gage continued that during the recession it was important that smaller firms watched every penny.

However, research from Barclaycard Commercial recently found that 40 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises’ employees claim that they do not follow a business travel policy.

For companies with 150 employees, this can equate to over spend of £2,607 a month, or £31,284 a year.

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