Meeting documents

Background and Best Practice Guidance

Following reports to the Economic Improvement and Scrutiny Committee Officers are developing proposals for a local procurement strategy.  This work is being progressed in light of the National Procurement Strategy proposals, the findings of the Economic Regeneration Best Value Review and best practice guidance from the CEDOS ‘Local Government procurement: an economic development action guide’ (outlined further below).  

Our work is currently positioning Wycombe as one of the leading District Council’s in developing a local suppliers initiative in response to the National Procurement Strategy.

Meeting Corporate Objectives

The project contributes to the requirements of the National Procurement Strategy, which have been set out in response to the Byatt Report.  More specifically the Strategy states that Councils should (a) take steps to ensure a diverse and competitive supply base, including procurement from small firms, ethnic minority businesses, social enterprises and voluntary and community organisations, and; (b) achieve community benefits as set out in the Community Plan through procurement.

The project also supports the following Economic Regeneration Best Value Review service priorities: (1) achieving greater engagement with local businesses & stakeholders; (2) increasing income into the District, and; (3) developing a sound knowledge-base of the local economy.

Progress to Date (Phase I)

Phase I of developing a Local Suppliers Initiative has recently been completed using industry consultants to assist in establishing the current level of business placed by the Council with local business.  The objective was to benchmark organisations, with the objective of increasing the amount of work awarded to local business either directly or indirectly within the acceptable constraints of legality.  The headline findings of this work are summarised below:

In March 2004 the Procurement Unit, in conjunction with Economic Development Unit, commissioned a survey to analyse the Council’s spend, and in particular to identify how much of this spend was ‘local’   The results of this research will be used to identify:

The research analysed the Council’s spending pattern with all its suppliers for the year 2003.  Key indicators for this spend are:

The data was refined to exclude suppliers with <£1,000 spend for the year, non-trade suppliers (i.e. bodies not registered as companies such as local authorities, charities and voluntary organisations) and unclassifieds (ie. companies not registered).  The final study, therefore, analysed 716 suppliers relating to £26.9m spend which ensured a full representation of Council spend.  The key findings were that the:

% of WDC spend with local suppliers in 2003:     20%     (£5.3m)

% of local spend with SME’s     42%     £2.3m

WDC top spend classification      Construction     £8.4m

Local spend was also analysed by wards.  The top three are shown here for reference:

A more detailed summary of results of the research is provided in the attachment to this information sheet.  

Future Work

Following the initial research outlined above, proposals are being developed to establish the terms of reference for a WDC Local Supplier Initiative.   The Initiative will include proposals to:

By 2004,

And by 2005,

The Next Steps

For the Officer contacts leading this project to prepare a more detailed report outlining the terms of reference of a Wycombe District Local Supplier Initiative Strategy and submit this for Cabinet consideration in September 2004.  

LOCAL SUPPLIERS INITIATIVE

SUMMARY RESULTS OF RESEARCH

The total number of suppliers included in the review was 716 out of a potential 1,830 used in the period January-December 2003.  This corresponds to a total spend of £26.9m.  This spend is classified as ‘non-pay’ expenditure ie. spend in relation to supplies, services and works.

The final number of suppliers included in the research was refined as follows:

2.     WDC Top suppliers by Spend:

NB.  Whilst a number of the Council’s suppliers have offices in High Wycombe, for the purposes of this research the payment address was used to identify ‘location’ by postcode.

The distribution of spend and suppliers by classification was analysed for two different classification systems – SIC codes and Thomson Directory:

3.2     Supplier & Spend Distribution by Directory (ie. Thomson classifications)

6.     WDC supplier location by South East region (£19.633m)

7.     WDC Spend distribution by local Wards:

Research carried out by Spikes Cavell & Co., 5 April 2004