T&E spend has been one area hit severely by expenditure cutbacks since the turn of the year, but now we've discovered that it’s not just foreign travel that has been put on the backburner.

Earlier this week a source at one of the UK’s leading telecommunications companies informed Procurement Leaders that their company was in the process of cutting out all non-essential domestic, as well as international travel.

“If you’re heading to London for a one hour meeting then the chances are that it’s something that can be dealt with via teleconference,” we were told.

Given that just 12 months ago, a trip to the smoke would have been greeted with a shrug of the shoulders and an air of indifference, just goes to show how keen companies are to cut costs at the current time.

And if you can’t hop in a car and head 40 miles up the motorway any more, then the chances of anyone in procurement hopping on a plane to attend a meeting further afield this side of Christmas seems very remote indeed.