Local procurement is the practice of using suppliers that are local to your project as much as possible. Although nationwide procurement has historically been seen as the best value for money in a challenging market such as construction, local procurement can bring a host of benefits both to your organisation and to the project as a whole.
Benefits of local procurement
As the construction sector looks to address the key challenges of the post-pandemic recovery, Brexit and the ongoing material shortages, local procurement can provide a range of benefits for client, project and supply chain alike:
- It benefits your local suppliers – By keeping business local, your project will enjoy greater support from the community and deliver social value.
- It helps meet CSR targets – Publicly procured projects have defined levels of local spend, so working with local suppliers will help you reach those targets.
- It can shorten timeframes – With material challenges throughout the supply chain, working with suppliers that are local to the project may help reduce the time needed to source what is required.
- It can help reduce costs – As fuel prices remain high, having local suppliers can lower the cost of transporting materials and reduce the logistical requirements.
- It provides environmental benefits – By reducing shipping and storage, the overall environmental impact of the project is lessened.
How to apply it to your project
The best way to embrace local procurement for your projects is to work with a trusted and experienced source that can provide you with a strong ecosystem of local suppliers.
Pagabo’s Small Works DPS and Medium Works Framework are built with local suppliers in mind, enabling more than £2.4 billion of benefit to local economies since they were launched. A minimum of two SMEs per lot, per region are also reserved places on the Major Works and Professional Services frameworks.
Conclusion
Projects that embrace local procurement can add significant value for both client and supply chain alike. By investing in local procurement, projects can directly support local economies through quantifiable apprentices, new jobs, safeguarded jobs and work placements.
If you factor in the further benefits of reduced costs and lowered carbon emissions, as well as shorter and less logistically challenging pathways for material delivery and storage, it is clear that taking a more localised approach to procurement can have benefits for all concerned.
To find out more about supporting local suppliers, you can visit our local impact page.
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