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Showing leadership

A more strategic approach to procurement should be at the heart of thinking for councillors and decision-makers in local authorities.


With local government third party expenditure totalling around £60 billion a year in revenue alone, procurement clearly has a major contribution to make. A more strategic approach to procurement should be at the heart of thinking for councillors and decisions makers in local authorities because procurement is not merely about ensuring compliance. There is an ever-growing need to engage with service heads and procurement teams on high value-high risk procurements to drive innovation, generate savings and identify opportunities for income generation.

On this page, we have gathered useful resources to help local government with this work.


A councillor's guide to procurement

This LGA guide is intended to help councillors achieve their ambitions for growth and economic success in the communities which they represent and serve, setting out a strategic approach to procurement, frames a set of useful questions to ask, and busts a number of procurement ‘myths’.

Download 'A Councillor's guide to procurement' (2019 edition)


LGA/CIPS Corporate Award

LGA and NAG have worked in partnership with CIPS and others to develop the ‘Corporate Award’ - a procurement and supply learning programme that has been designed to incorporate terminology, practices and unique challenges specific to local government.