A regional shakeup of procurement expertise for local authorities and housing associations in England is aiming to help councils and construction SMEs avoid some of the worst economic inequalities post coronavirus. The London Housing Consortium is placing emphasis on highly localised procurement support and has restructured its regional branches to provide more tailored technical advice to its public sector partners and construction suppliers.
Said LHC group director: “… After the last recession, we saw how economic inequality impacted each region of the UK, particularly affecting smaller building firms and construction trades who found it very hard to win good local contracts from public sector clients in competition against much larger firms. Unfortunately, coming out of the coronavirus crisis, we expect the country to experience similar issues. That’s why LHC is putting all of the support measures in place now to ensure that when lockdown ends, projects and new tenders can get started as soon as possible, and high quality local construction suppliers can get access to a wide range of local public sector frameworks.” Read more here on how the restructure works.