There is a lot of talk about more tax cuts, and how local government is expected to find new levels of productivity and deliver yet more savings. This is on top of a cut in awards of over 50% since 2010, and directly leading to yet more councils declaring financial challenges.
It’s tough out there and it’s going to get tougher. It' s worth reminding ourselves that there are around 14.4 million people living on the poverty line in the UK, which includes 8.1 million working-age adults (see the Joseph Rowntree Foundation). Every month, there are many 100s of young people coming out of care and falling into homelessness - or even worse, being forced into petty crime in order to survive.
Not to mention the global challenge of climate change!
And so now, more than ever, it is time for public sector buyers to ask more of their supply chain and engage them to help fill in the gaps that public funding is no longer able to fill.
We don’t need less Social Value, we need more. Even though budgets are tight, it seems wrong minded of buyers to step away from the opportunity they have to engage their supply chain by embedding Social Value into procurement – they need to lean in and do more, even embedding it into planning, rather than shying away from it.
It’s not just public sector buyers that need to step up to the plate – we all do. I am especially thinking about those big UK businesses with large supply chains, who should be thinking about how they can embed Social Value into their own supply chains, channelling the spirit of the Social Value Act to support our communities and help them thrive and flourish – the Social Value Economy at work.
And so, whilst the Chancellor does his stuff with levelling up and supporting free ports and more devolution, let’s not sit back and wait.
Our nation needs us!