How and what do we buy?

Procurement Strategy 2021 to 2025

In December 2020 the Executive and Full Council approved the Council’s Procurement Strategy for the period 2021 - 2025.

The strategy is a key document that outlines the Council’s procurement aims over the next four years and is a strategy to deliver the Council Plan within the priority area of an ‘Enabling Council’.

The vision for this strategy is to provide a procurement function that will:

• Support local businesses and work to enable the third sector in its activities and enable the local market, both large and small organisations, to feel able and willing to work with the Council.
• Deliver tangible social value and inclusive growth to the benefit of the residents of the District specifically addressing climate and environmental issues.
• Be an influencer in shaping procurement with public sector organisations within the District.
• Achieve value for money through procurement and contract management practice for the Council and the residents of the District.

We know that the procurement strategy document is not fully accessible. If you have problems accessing the document please contact [email protected].

What does the Council buy?

More information and data on what we buy can be found in the Open Data pages under 'our datasets'.

How does the Council buy?

We are committed to increasing business interest in working with us and aim to be a preferred client of suppliers who can deliver the best value to the Council and the District. Wherever possible within the rules and regulations that we have to follow we will support the economic regeneration of the District by buying directly and indirectly from local suppliers wherever this gives best value.

A summary of the rules that we must follow are described below:

Council rules (Contract Standing Orders) 2025/2026

There are set clear rules called Contract Standing Orders by which the Council spends money on works, goods and services. The rules apply to any Contract entered into by the Council and must be followed by all members of staff.

The procurement process covers the full life cycle of activities starting with the identification of need, through to evaluation, purchasing and contract management. Procurement can range from purchasing day to day commodities to purchasing key strategic items such as large capital assets, or commissioning a service or buying an entire service.

Public procurement must be undertaken in accordance with principles enshrined in Procurement Legislation. The Council must always act to promote competition and to ensure that each procurement is conducted as an open, transparent and fair competition. The Council must avoid practices which may restrict or distort competition.

Depending on how much is being spent (total contract value inclusive of VAT) there are different rules that we must follow:

The Threshold values from 1 January 2024 are:

Supplies (Goods) and Services - £214,904 including VAT

Works - £5,372,609 including VAT

Light Touch Regime for Services - £663,540 (Unchanged from 2022)