Title

FINANCE

Scottish councils should 'target local economies'

Campaigners have called on Scottish councils to spend more with small and medium-sized enterprises (SME).

Campaigners have called on Scottish councils to spend more with small and medium-sized enterprises (SME).

Scotland's 32 local authorities spend more than £6.1bn a year procuring goods and services, but the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said the average council spent only 19.7% of their procurement budget with SMEs in their area in 2015/16.  

The data exposes a variation across local authorities, with West Dunbartonshire Council delivering just 5.8% of its budget with local firms, but Shetland Islands Council using more than half (53.6%) of its spending power to boost its local economy.

The FSB said all of Scotland's city councils, with the exception of Aberdeen, spent less than one pound in four with local SMEs.

Scottish policy convenor for the FSB, Andy Willox, said: ‘Council budgets are under significant pressure.

'That's why it is important that they squeeze every drop of value out of their spending power by targeting it on their local economies.

‘We're calling on every Scottish council to increase their spending with local firms by two per cent per year, delivering a £600m boost to Scottish business by 2021.'

 

FINANCE

EXCLUSIVE: LGA must show its value to councils, says Reform UK group leader

By Dan Peters | 15 August 2025

Reform UK will review its decision to have a group at the Local Government Association (LGA) after spending time judging the organisation’s worth, the party’...

FINANCE

Suffolk CC opposition: Maintain roads instead of splashing out on reorganisation publicity

By Dan Peters | 15 August 2025

Suffolk CC has spent around £100,000 of taxpayers’ money promoting a single county unitary to residents in the last two months, the council’s official opposi...

FINANCE

Why the four-day week works for South Cambridgeshire

By Cllr Bridget Smith | 13 August 2025

Cllr Bridget Smith says South Cambridgeshire’s four-day week improved service delivery, staff wellbeing, recruitment, and retention, while cutting agency cos...

FINANCE

Putting procurement spending to the test

By Mo Baines | 08 August 2025

Mo Baines sets out the questions public contracting authorities should ask before deciding on a delivery model for services, using a Public Interest Test

Popular articles by William Eichler