An increasingly important focus for public bodies across the UK is to deliver more social value in procurement projects. Part of this is using the project to help invest in the local economy and community, whether it’s in construction, health and social care, education, or facilities management. Local procurement is not just about delivering the goods or services needed for the project at the cheapest possible cost, it’s about supporting SMEs and strengthening the community too.
While it can sound straightforward, the process of sourcing local suppliers is often more complex than it first appears. From limited competition to issues around ensuring compliance and quality assurance, local procurement brings a distinct set of challenges that can be difficult to navigate, especially for teams under pressure to deliver projects on time and within budget.
This guide explores some of the biggest challenges in local procurement for the public sector, and how strategic solutions can help overcome them, ensuring compliance, improving supplier quality, and achieving better project outcomes for everyone involved.
Jump to:
- Limited competition and supplier capacity
- Ensuring supplier quality and standards in regional procurement
- Managing procurement timelines and the admin burden
- Balancing value for money with local impact and social value
- Managing risk and compliance through the whole project lifecycle
- How Procurement Hub can help
1. Limited competition and supplier capacity
One of the first hurdles many public sector buyers face when trying to procure locally is the limited pool of suppliers in the area available to compete for work.
In particular, smaller or rural regions may find that their local market simply doesn’t have the depth of capability or capacity needed to meet their specific requirements. Even in urban areas, smaller suppliers might not have the resources or experience to deliver large-scale or complex contracts fully.
This lack of competition can lead to several issues:
● Reduced value for money if there are few or no competing bids.
● Increased project risk if suppliers overstretch themselves.
● Delays in delivery if the local market cannot meet demand.
The solution: Using a proven procurement framework
An effective way to overcome this issue is to use a procurement framework that opens up access to a wider pool of suppliers, while still supporting local participation.
Frameworks that offer national cover often include a combination of both regional SMEs and national suppliers with local delivery teams, ensuring there’s a healthy mix of competition and capability. Buyers can use a framework to access suppliers for projects based on region or value band, helping ensure opportunities remain accessible to smaller local firms without compromising performance standards.
This approach helps to support the local economy while maintaining a competitive and scalable supply base, which also minimises compliance risk.
2. Ensuring supplier quality and standards in regional procurement
While local procurement can bring tangible social and economic benefits, it can also raise questions around consistency, reliability and quality control.
Some local suppliers, especially newer SMEs, may not yet have robust systems in place for areas such as:
- Health and safety compliance
- Environmental management
- Financial resilience
- Equality and diversity commitments
- Quality assurance processes
Public sector organisations must be able to demonstrate that every contract awarded is compliant with UK Public Procurement Regulations, fair, and capable of delivering value for money. Without thorough vetting, there’s a risk that regional procurement projects could potentially fall short of these standards.
The solution: Connecting with pre-qualified suppliers through a compliant framework
Using a compliant framework agreement ensures that all suppliers have already been thoroughly assessed before being made available for selection, whatever region of the UK you are in.
Framework providers like Procurement Hub ensure that approved suppliers meet the standards required by legislation and best practice, such as checking financial stability, insurance, health and safety documentation, GDPR compliance, and more. This pre-qualification process removes a significant administrative burden for public sector buyers, while giving confidence that every local supplier engaged through the framework has met the required standards.
As a result, public sector procurement teams can focus on project delivery rather than endless paperwork and be assured that quality and compliance are already built into the process.
3. Managing procurement timelines and the admin burden
Local authorities and public bodies often work under tight timescales. This means that when projects are delayed by lengthy procurement processes, the impact can sometimes be felt across entire communities. Whether it’s a new school, housing development or public space, the project can’t move forward until contracts are in place.
Traditional procurement routes can involve:
● Drafting and publishing complex tenders
● Managing supplier queries and clarifications
● Evaluating multiple suppliers
● Conducting compliance and financial checks
For smaller procurement teams, this can quickly become overwhelming and can often push timescales back and cause lots of stress for all involved.
The solution: Utilising streamlined, ready-to-use procurement routes
Frameworks provide a fast, compliant route to market, significantly reducing the time and resources required to appoint a qualified and compliant supplier.
Because the early tendering and pre-qualification stages have already been completed in order for every supplier to join the framework, organisations can directly connect to a list of approved suppliers to invite bids. This flexibility allows buyers to balance speed with competitiveness.
The result is faster project mobilisation, fewer administrative headaches and reduced risk of costly delays, all while maintaining full transparency and compliance with UK procurement law.
4. Balancing value for money with local impact and social value
The public sector is increasingly expected to deliver social value through procurement decisions, supporting community benefit, sustainability and economic growth alongside financial efficiency. That’s a lot of plates for procurement teams to spin at once and achieving this balance isn’t always straightforward.
While local suppliers can offer community benefits, they may not always provide the lowest price. The other side of the coin is that national firms may deliver economies of scale but contribute less to local social value objectives.
Finding the right balance between value for money and local impact remains one of the most complex areas of modern public procurement.
The solution: Using a structured framework that integrates social value criteria
Well-designed flexible frameworks help address this by embedding social value into the evaluation process.
Framework providers like Procurement Hub can help you to assess and score suppliers on their commitments to:
● Local employment and apprenticeships
● Carbon reduction and sustainability
● Community engagement and reinvestment
This ensures that every supplier on the framework already understands and supports the public sector’s wider objectives. Buyers can then tailor their bid invites or direct awards to focus on suppliers who offer the best combination of cost efficiency, quality, and community benefit.
In this way, frameworks make it possible to deliver both value and values, ensuring that regional procurement works for the economy, the taxpayer, and the community.
5. Managing risk and compliance through the whole project lifecycle
The challenges of procurement don’t stop once contracts have been awarded to suppliers. Ongoing contract management and risk mitigation are critical to ensuring that projects stay on track and within budget.
Without the right controls in place, issues such as supplier insolvency, non-performance, or poor communication can quickly escalate into costly delays or reputational damage in the very community that should be benefitting from the project.
The solution: Framework oversight and ongoing supplier management
A key advantage of using established procurement frameworks is that they don’t just stop at supplier appointments, they can also provide ongoing governance and support.
Some framework providers may offer:
- Regular supplier performance reviews
- Continuous compliance monitoring
- Centralised documentation and reporting
- Expert procurement advice and dispute resolution support
This support helps protect public bodies from risk, ensuring suppliers remain compliant, responsive, and capable throughout the contract term.
It also means that lessons learned from one project can be shared across the wider framework community, driving continuous improvement and better outcomes for future procurement projects under the public sector.
How Procurement Hub can help
At Procurement Hub, we firmly believe that local procurement doesn’t have to mean compromising on cost, quality, compliance, or efficiency. With the right approach, and the right procurement tools and support, public sector organisations can achieve all four while still championing their local economies and communities.
Our heritage as part of Places for People, the largest social enterprise in the UK, has helped us to design, shape and refine our procurement solutions to ensure that they are tried, tested and proven to be an effective way to manage successful and compliant public sector projects.
Get in touch to find out more.