Member Article

Regional forum on public sector procurement opens up

The region’s largest business membership organisation has joined forces with North East manufacturers to break down the barriers preventing growth.

The North East Chamber of Commerce has partnered with Your Homes Newcastle (YHN) to stage a Regional Manufacturers Meeting - a forum to address the barriers that currently prevent procurement spend staying local.

YHN spends approximately £50 million on construction related activities in the City of Newcastle. By interacting with local SMEs, YHN and NECC want to continue to work to keep more of the profits from investment in our region to benefit the local economy.

NECC’s Unlocking the Barriers report estimated that the supply chain for the North East public sector has the potential to generate an extra £1.35 billion and create 6,000 North East jobs.

NECC Policy Advisor, Rachel Travis, said: “More must be done to ensure our indigenous businesses are not missing out on potentially lucrative public sector contracts. Influencing a procurement system that is more responsive to the regional supply market is vital.

“It is great that Your Homes Newcastle, and other NECC members, are working to ensure their procurement practices are structured to be of greater benefit to local businesses and people. Hopefully future Regional Manufacturing Meetings will provide industry-insight into the challenges and opportunities for improving procurement practice – work NECC and its members remain committed to.”

It is estimated that £3.5 billion is spent by the regional public sector each year buying goods and services. In the context of a £41 billion economy it represents a significant slice of regional business opportunities.

YHN’s Director of Property Services, David Langhorne, said “We undertake a significant amount of investment across the 27,000 assets we manage on behalf of Newcastle City Council which ensures our tenants’ homes are modern and well maintained. We wanted to explore why so much of our investment leaves the region. If we can procure more local companies and manufacturers the local economy benefits, generating more jobs for our own customers.

“The mutual benefits are clear. Our forum is already proving beneficial, allowing us to understand how we can help unlock the barriers whilst keeping an ever stringent eye on value for money.”

Keith Newbegin, director at Straightline Construction Co Ltd, said “We attended the event as a local SME contracted to YHN on external refurbishment work. We wanted to find out why local firms were finding it difficult to compete in supplying materials, many of which are transported into the region from companies several hundred miles away but remained more competitive.

“We hope to work within the Regional Manufacturers Forum with local suppliers to see if we can together achieve increased efficiencies and hence competitiveness’. Issues raised at the first Regional Manufacturers Meeting matched NECC’s Manifesto and policy priorities, including an approach to procurement not purely price driven, but considers life-cycle costs, added-value and quality of goods and services provided.”

Rachel added: “NECC will continue to campaign on these issues and work closely with members, such as YHN and our Buy North East Steering Group, which oversees our work on procurement reform to this end.

“Supply-chain businesses are a significant proportion of the North East’s economic base, and it is important that we do all we can to support them.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by North East Chamber of Commerce .