The new Procurement Act and SMEs - Words Into Actions

"Thousands of small businesses to benefit from new government buying rules, boosting local jobs, growth and innovation"

This headline was put out by the government to accompany the recent NPPS, setting out its priorities for the new Procurement Act, including “driving economic growth and strengthening supply chains by giving SMEs and VCSEs a fair chance, creating high quality jobs and championing innovation”.

The new government’s statements correctly identify a long-standing issue with the awarding of public contracts. SMEs make up over 99% of the UK’s 5.6 million businesses, employ 60% of the private sector workforce and generate half of its turnover. Yet, as the 2024 SME Procurement Tracker by Tussell reported, “direct spending with SMEs of.. public sector procurement spending was only 20%″.

You can listen to the podcast recording of our recent Urbano speaker panel event, where senior representatives from AECOM, Peabody and Mace, alongside Dr Rebecca Rees of Trowers & Hamlins and an audience of SMEs, discussed the impact of the new rules and policies: Urbano podcast - SMEs and the new Procurement Act

The spending dial with SMEs is still firmly stuck. But how can we move it – and why?

The challenge
The average SME contract from a direct tender win is £32k, yet the definition of a SME is any company with fewer than 250 employees and a turnover of up to £25M.

There is a disconnect between SMEs and the public sector. Private sector success doesn’t translate easily into winning public sector work, where for enterprises and entrepreneurs in business areas key to the UK, such as software, technology and other areas of innovation, the resources needed to submit  tenders only to lose may lead to a negative perception of all opportunities the public sector can offer. 

Improving awareness of upcoming tenders alone won’t deliver the desired increase. The reality is small business founders and directors need to be encouraged to see the value in becoming part of the public sector's supply chains. They already run profitable companies. They need to know what tangible value  the process of engagement offers them. They need to feel that they will be part of an active ecosystem which itself will facilitate collaboration and bring growth opportunities beyond just tenders.

If the organisation that is the catalyst to such connections can measure the tangible benefits of being part of its own ecosystem, it can then demonstrate in social value terms how its programmes and projects are delivering on the government's commitments to small businesses. We can help you do that.

How we can help
As Urbano, we have spent 20 years bringing together company founders, owners and directors from a range of sectors to meet, learn, share ideas, collaborate and generate new business opportunities through our own diverse programme of business events.

Urbano produces a weekly tenders list where we find and distribute opportunities for SMEs to bid for work from the public sector. We also hosted regular speaker events with large companies, like Mace Group, AECOM, ARUP, and BAM, to facilitate connections between Tier 1's and SMEs and to share their expertise in areas like BIM, AI, workplace technology, AR, VR and Blockchain. 

As Talent Lab, we have helped write successful bids for our large clients, including awards with the National Grid (Greater Grid Upgrade Programme), Carbon Trust, Environment Agency, High Speed 2, Network Rail, Transport for London and various local government departments and councils.

We have helped shape, write and edit technical reports and guides for clients, including the Security Overlay for RIBA and the Guide to Procurement for SMEs as part of the Innovation Driven Procurement Programme (Nottingham Trent University, Construction Industry Training Board and Morgan Sindall). 

We have delivered masterclasses for SMEs in branding, marketing and tendering and facilitated speaker training events on subjects such as AI, BIM, Building Safety Act, Blockchain, BREEAM, Cyber Security, ESG, IOT/M2M,  MMC, Neurodiversity in the Workplace, Workplace and Work, and WELL. 

We also have a unique database of 60,000 subscribers to our Urbano business information mailers, plus a website that we use to ensure our events can be used as a funnel-point to help participants not only learn how to win new business opportunities through the public sector, but deliver change in areas such as sustainability, technology, DEI and other government priorities. 

You can view our track record as Talent Lab and Urbano here: Procurement and SMEs

Turning words into actions
In our experience of organising over 1,000 business events and helping win valuable tenders worth millions for a range of clients, nothing replaces an early conversation in delivering a successful outcome. 

If you and your organisation would like to chat with us about your own ambitions to help small businesses, please email Mark Herring, Urbano's Connector-In-Chief.