33.1% Of Council Procurement Is Within Wrexham Itself

A FOI by Plaid Cymru has revealed that 33.1% of Wrexham Council’s procurement is spent with suppliers within the authority’s boundaries.

Plaid Cymru’s local parliamentary candidate Carrie Harper is calling on Wrexham Council to increase the amount of tenders and contracts allocated to local firms by 25%, which could create up to 1500 jobs in the county borough.

Carrie Harper said: “The low level of procurement of services from the council in Wrexham and also from Welsh based suppliers generally is something we have been monitoring for a number of years. It remains consistently low.”

“The FOI reveals that, out of a total of over £116 million spent by the council on procuring services in during the last financial year, only 33% was spent within Wrexham and only 45% from within Wales.

“This just does not make any sense economically and the council needs a shift of perspective in order to secure as much local benefit as possible from its spending.

“The vitally important point to remember here is that creating these jobs does not cost an additional penny, it’s just about having a more local focus and spending smarter.

“A progressive strategy designed to increase local procurement by 25% could produce up to 1,500 new local jobs. With the unemployment rate in Wrexham currently standing at 1,673, that can have a huge impact on our local economy and people’s lives.

Carrie Harper said there were good examples of how this had been achieved in other councils: “In 2012 the Federation of Small Businesses commissioned a report looking at how council supply chains can help small businesses. They quote the example of Manchester City council which, through a strategy based on place, economic development and influence, increased the re-spend back into the Manchester economy from 25p to 42p in every pound.

“Wrexham can do this as well and transform our local economy. The only question to ask is why we’re not doing this already? It’s only red tape that makes it more difficult for smaller local businesses to bid for these contracts and this issue has been successfully tackled elsewhere.”

Yesterday we asked Wrexham Council for comment and context of these figures and will update this article when we get further details.

The FOI question and answer is below:
Q1: How much did the council spend on procurement in the last financial year?
A: £116,116,379.

Q2: Of this how much was:
(a) Spent on Welsh based suppliers?
A: £52,974,717
(b) Spent on suppliers based within the authority’s boundaries
A: £38,439,732