London Procurement Strategy

This strategy sets out how Capital Ambition will play a role in helping London local authorities transform the regional procurement landscape, the policy direction it intends to follow, and how it will help them in delivering cashable savings from the £9.3 billion spend to contribute towards the financial realities of 2011/12 and beyond.

It is designed to build on the work which individual boroughs are undertaking, by promoting greater collaboration between both local authorities and other public sector bodies such as the NHS. London collectively is a significant player in terms of the market influence that it has, but it does not always use this influence to best effect. For example, using different specifications and standards for high value commodity items (e.g. PCs, vehicles, highways materials) is not only costly for the taxpayer, but also an overhead for the suppliers. The recent London ICT e-Auction in which 15 London authorities took part using standard specifications delivered cashable savings of nearly £2M.

The key to delivering cashable savings from procurement in the future is about working smarter. This does not mean more aggregation and framework contacts, but rather deciding at what level the most influence can be deployed. This could be national, regional (i.e. London as a whole), sub-regional, or even individual authorities. This approach complements the work being under taken on 'total place' which will help the public sector redefine service delivery models.