Local Authorities
Selling your goods and services to the public sector can be both a daunting yet rewarding prospect.
Selling to Local Authorities and Public Sector bodies
The Chest is the North West's Local Authority Procurement Portal, it has separate web pages for each of the north west’s sub-regions and individual councils as well as other public sector bodies.
Selling to the Council
This brief guide has been produced so that local businesses are aware of the opportunities available to them.
What do we purchase?
As Eden District Council we purchased some £5.8 million pounds worth of revenue items every year. Approximately half of this expenditure relates to contracted services, such as refuse collection (2021: Urbaser Ltd), recycling (2021: Cumbria Waste Recycling Ltd), grounds maintenance (2021: Urbaser Ltd), leisure management (2021: GLL Ltd) and building cleaning (2021: Urbaser Ltd).
The main other items of expenditure are:
- Insurance - £138,000
- Professional Fees - £552,000
- IT Equipment and Software - £405,000
- Utilities - £134,000
We also enter into a range of contracts for capital works. The total Capital Programme over the next four years is approximately £11.3 million pounds and comprises building, investment and engineering work.
How do we purchase?
- Orders below £10,000 - the bulk of our day-to-day supplies and services are procured by orders of less than £10,000. The orders are awarded on the basis of competitive quotations (dependent on value).
- Orders over £10,000, but less than £60,000 - a minimum of three competitive quotations are invited. We are committed to placing our opportunities to provide services on The Chest. This is an electronic portal on which suppliers can register free of charge. Registration ensures service providers are automatically notified when suitable opportunities arise.
- Procurement over £60,000 - a minimum of four competitive tenders are sought for this level of procurement. Unless impractical, all such tenders will be advertised on The Chest. In some circumstances we also use a Special List where there are a limited number of specialist suppliers for that particular procurement. In other cases we use open tendering. In such a case, a tender invitation will appear in the local press, as well as in the relevant trade journal.
What you can do
If you think you supply goods and services that we may be interested in, please register free of charge on The Chest, it is simple to complete.