The Government has pledged to help councils simplify the procurement process, in a bid to cut costs and improve transparency.
Local government minister, Kris Hopkins, said councils have a ‘tick-box mentiality’ to procurement and new plans would help remove unnecessary paperwork and compliance.
Mr Hopkins said: ‘Costly gold-plating of procurement is rife across the public sector but we are freeing town halls from this tick box mentality so that they can deliver a better deal for local people.
‘Small local firms and voluntary groups will be brought in from the cold because for far too long there have been obstacles preventing them from tendering for contracts.’
The new proposals changes the equality requirements placed on public bodies and implements recommendations made by Lord Young’s report on helping small firms.