Local Procurement: Making the most of small businesses, one year on

Over the last four months, the Centre for Local Economic Strategies has been undertaking research work with the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) exploring local authority procurement. The work which follows on from similar work undertaken in 2012 has sought to identify the extent to which local authorities spend their procurement resource in their own boundary and with Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). It has also sought to explore the relationship between local government and SME’s when it comes to procurement and particularly the processes local authorities are seeking to adopt to support SMEs in the tender process.

In addition to the analysis of the survey findings, CLES has also utilised its procurement research elsewhere to develop figures as to the additional benefit local small firms bring to local economies in comparison to local large firms.

Summary document – Local Procurement- making the most of small business, one year on