Restoring public values: the role of public procurement

As we attempt to recover from Covid-19, we must seek to equip the local and national state with an inbuilt resilience and adequate contingency to tackle the other crises it has for so long ignored: poverty, social care, housing and – most significantly of all – the climate emergency. Fundamental to this aim is a firm recommitment to the notion that public expenditure must be harnessed to maximise social value and deliver greater social, economic and environmental justice.

This provocation explores the role for public values in public procurement in the light of Covid-19 and proposes a way forward that considers how the spending of public money can be harnessed to maximise its social value and deliver greater social, economic and environmental justice.