Supporting Local Businesses

GUIDANCE NOTE 1
SUPPORTING LOCAL SUPPLIERS

European Public Procurement Contract Regulations do not allow procurement awards to be made based on geographical location or ability to favour local businesses as this may be seen as discriminatory.

However there are many ways that local businesses and the local economy can legitimately be supported through procurement based initiatives without contravening the Regulations.  Detailed below are a number of suggestions which are available to support our local businesses.  All of these approaches may be found within the Procurement Lincolnshire Sustainable Procurement Strategy and Action Plan which has been adopted by Lincolnshire County Council, together with each of the other 7 local authorities in Lincolnshire.

Low Value Purchases:

• You can approach a single supplier for purchases up to the value of £10k providing you can demonstrate this delivers good value;
• Make maximum use of Corporate Contracts wherever possible;
• Use the Lincolnshire Procurement Card to procure low value goods through local outlets.  This means that suppliers will get paid usually within 3 days which really helps their cashflow.  If you haven’t got a Procurement Card, for further information please contact Procurement Lincolnshire.

As part of the sourcing strategy you can consider:

• Use contract packaging to break down larger contracts to match SME (Small and medium sized enterprises) and Social Enterprise capacity as long as you are breaking down your contract to achieve a better value rather than avoid EU thresholds;
• Ring-fence a share of the requirement as a pilot contract for local or Social Enterprise supply;
• Encourage collaboration between local SME’s and Social Enterprises to compete for larger contracts;
• Encourage larger suppliers to sub-contract to local SME’s and Social Enterprises;
• Work with a supplier to develop a local supply chain and employment opportunities to deliver a better service after awarding a contract;
• Build a number of social, as well as environmental, benefits into your contracts;
• Hold supplier briefings prior to issuing Invitations to Tender to explore innovation and ensure that specifications are deliverable by the marketplace;
• Include a requirement for bidders to submit optional, priced proposals for the delivery of community benefits, as long as they are relevant to the contract and the Sustainable Community Strategy.

You can:

• Proactively engage with businesses in the area to boost their chances of being able to compete for public contracts, as well as to improve our local economy in general, as long as you do not give them an unfair advantage during the procurement process;
• Provide information about future procurement activity, and advertise tenders on appropriate websites including SourceLincolnshire.co.uk or Supply2.gov.uk;
• Provide advice, guidance and training where appropriate; Procurement Lincolnshire have been instrumental in organising a number of training events to support local businesses, and subsequently the local economy.  These events, organised in conjunction with the Lincolnshire Chamber of Commerce and Lincolnshire Federation of Small Businesses, are designed to give local businesses the skills and understanding to submit successful bids for tenders advertised within the public sector.  The next series of training events will take place at the end of April.  Venues and dates are shown below.  If you would like any of your local suppliers to attend any of these sessions, please see the attached document below.
• Follow the principles of the concordat between Partner Authorities and SME’s;
• Support the annual “Meet the Buyer” Event – For further info please contact Procurement Lincolnshire.

To support local suppliers be a good customer – they need to know what you want!

These are simply a number of suggestions to use as a starting point.  If you have any questions or would like further clarification, please contact a member of Procurement Lincolnshire on 01522 553649.