Public good procurement could generate £3.9 billion for local communities
Public bodies are being urged to use their purchasing power to tackle poverty and inequality within local communities and create a good jobs industry in the UK in a new report ‘Public Good Procurement’ issued on behalf of the grassroots #BetterForUs campaign run by award-winning community enterprise, Aspire Community Works.
Drawing on its own lived experience of the procurement process, the report argues that all too often public procurement pushes wages down, fails to address deep-rooted inequalities and puts pressure on the public purse through subsidising low paying employers who offer bad work detrimental to people’s health. This puts good employers who pay the Real Living Wage at a disadvantage within the procurement process, leading to a spiral of downward wages within the procurement process and negative public value.
The report urges the UK Government to...