Opportunities for Public Procurement Post-Brexit

Over the last 10 years the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) has been at the forefront of progressive policy thinking and action around public procurement.

Our work has sought to:

• Measure where procurement spend goes;
• Shift the behaviour of procurers so they think not just about cost, but also local economic, social and environmental outcomes; and
• Influence suppliers to deliver enhanced outcomes through the provision of goods and services.

We have seen significant shifts in cultures and behaviours amongst local authorities and other anchor institutions around procurement – however, in the context of Brexit, there is a real opportunity to mainstream more progressive approaches. In this paper, we outline the key opportunities for procurement post-Brexit. In particular, the need for ‘beefed up’ social value focused legislation at the national level, together with the need for locally defined social outcomes frameworks and processes at a local level, which are framed by a desire to inherently link the cycle of procurement to local circumstances.