Councils missing Northern Powerhouse investment target

MORE than half of Northern Powerhouse councils are missing the government’s pledge to spend £1 in every £3 with small businesses, especially when it comes to their IT outsourcing activities.
 
Furthermore, 86% have no plans to increase their IT services allocation to SME suppliers. This is according to research from IT services aggregator Streamwire, under Freedom of Information requests.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request was sent to all 34 councils who make up the UK’s Northern Powerhouse to ascertain the proportion of the IT services spend allocated to small and medium sized enterprises.
 
The results seemingly highlighted a disconnection between Government policies to encourage local spend with SMEs, and the actual spending habits of local councils.

Anne Stokes, chief executive of Streamwire, urges Northern Powerhouse councils to take a more concerted view to spend with SMEs: “The key objective of the Northern Powerhouse was to establish the region as a beacon for ‘doing things differently’, strengthening the area as an economic hub and showcasing how other regions could adopt similar innovation and best practice in their communities.

“Councils can play a powerful role by using their budgets to procure more from SMEs, which are more than likely to be regional businesses.
 
“Unless local councils take up this mantle, the government’s goal of building an economic stronghold in the North is surely going to be very difficult to achieve sustainably.”