I may be in a good position to offer some advice to Georgia Gould, the UK’s Cabinet Office minister, as she tries to encourage councils to buy from small companies (“Shake-up to let councils favour local businesses”, Report, February 14).
One quick way to increase the number of small enterprises selling to councils is to allow them to use email quotes in place of going through complex council e-procurement portals. This should be for all tender exercises from companies with a threshold of fewer than 10 employees, replacing arbitrary monetary thresholds.
Furthermore, all tenders could include at least three quotes from a small local entity.
The minister could also order that council procurement boards include a local, retired and therefore experienced small business representative.
In addition, to help with access to finance, why not include a Dragons’ Den-style universal bank financier on all council procurement boards so that everyone is in the room? This will surely ensure contracts can be financed adequately for all businesses, small and large.
Finally, we all know one of the biggest problems facing small undertakings is the plague of late payment. I would urge the minister to simply flip that problem by introducing legislation to allow early payment. This would enable councils to pay their local small businesses in advance.
This would only apply where the contractual relationship is in at least its third successive year, yielding local jobs and producing results for all concerned.
Cllr Stephen Alambritis
Former Council Leader, Merton
Former Senior Staffer, The Federation of Small Businesses, London CR4, UK
