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A commitment to local regeneration

Head of account strategy for local government at Crown Commercial Service, David Bemrose, explains how the organisation is using its national buying power to provide solutions for local authorities, making it easier to invest in the communities they look after.

Crown Commercial Service (CCS), the UK's largest public procurement organisation, is committed to supporting local authorities to regenerate their local communities.

Why use CCS?

At CCS we understand local authorities are at the forefront of regenerating their local communities, whether that is to help their local economy thrive, to revive or repurpose struggling high streets or to deliver against relevant government policy agendas such as carbon net zero.

This will include the procurement of everything from the decarbonisation of property through to the use of smart technology to develop clean air zones and low emissions zones.

We provide a number of comprehensive end-to-end commercial agreements to meet your needs, from off the shelf options to more advanced and bespoke solutions.

How can CCS help local authorities procure regeneration solutions?

Regeneration which, in an urban context, covers large-scale works intended to promote economic growth as well as smaller-scale works that improve the quality of life, typically requires substantial investment in capital and infrastructure projects in the local area.

This can include the creation of new leisure and tourist facilities, the redevelopment of retail space, the creation of new business premises and, often, a combination of multiple overlapping and inter-related projects (such as those just mentioned).

Delivering this regeneration activity requires access to resources, procurement expertise and commercial routes to market which local authorities may have not previously needed or used.

As an example, for requirements on redevelopment or creation of new premises, our construction works and associated services and building materials and equipment agreements can help you find the right solutions.

If you're unsure where to begin with a regeneration project, you can access a wide range of technical advisory services in support of regeneration and infrastructure projects of all scales and sizes, using our construction professional services agreement.

How is CCS supporting local authorities to meet their sustainability targets?

We know that any regeneration activity has to be mindful of the requirement for our local places to support the transition to carbon net zero, whether installing roadside electric vehicle charging points or using technology to support the delivery of services.

We are working with local authorities to provide market insight into new clean air zone technology.

We recently helped Bristol City Council meet legal limits for pollution.

Using our traffic technology and associated services agreement Bristol will see the installation of cameras for number plate recognition and identification of bus lane infringements, complete with an on-site maintenance package and a back-office data management system.

The solution will also impact traffic signal timings to improve traffic flows and increase priority for buses at traffic signals.

Accessing grants, finance and funding to support regeneration

There are grant funds available for regeneration projects.

We have worked to collate a list of open clean air zone grants and funding opportunities from across government into a single place – you can find out more on our website.

However, we know that sometimes there is a need for additional sources of finance in order to complete projects or deliver additional complementary elements.

Our asset finance solution is an industry leading twin-agreement solution providing a revolutionary way for public sector customers to source funding for their projects.

The solution involves a diverse range of lenders competing on customer projects through our leasing and loan Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS), ensuring a transparent and genuinely competitive cost of financing.

If you want to understand more about our asset finance solution, you can find out more by visiting our finance and funding options webpage.

To discover more about the work we do at CCS to support local authorities, please visit our website www.crowncommercial.gov.uk/sectors/local-government or, to speak to a member of our expert team, please call us on 0345 410 2222.

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