Every year around one-third of all Government spending goes on public contracts to the private sector. Before Covid, this sum was in the region of £290 billion per year – more than twice the total annual NHS budget, five times the defence budget, and more than the entire welfare system.
This timely report from the Centre for Social Justice calls on the government:
To use its huge purchasing power to direct these existing funds to the areas that need it most by adopting a Levelling Up Test for all central government contracts: Whitehall should explicitly prioritise areas of high deprivation or high unemployment within its new post-Brexit procurement rules. Central government contracts should also, where possible, be devolved to local authorities that are in most need of more investment
This report chimes with suggestions we have put forward around a wealth creation approach to community development, where we suggested
Economic planning and community development converge. Local authorities encourage dialogue and “wealth creation” is shared. This approach varies from deciding to invest in and promote certain types of economic growth which benefit “poor” communities to relatively simple measures such as: a local factory with a canteen purchasing locally produced food or a local authority building into its contracting procedures a “social value” dimension, so that contracts are awarded to firms who give back
Read the full CSJ support here https://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/library/spending-it-better-taking-back-control-of-public-contracts-to-level-up-britain
Read Kieran’s brief article on wealth creation here https://www.vulnerability360.org.uk/together-we-can-wealth-creation-and-community-development-by-kieran-breen/