ProcureCo in Inside Housing magazine

John Wallace, Director of Procurement at Clarion Housing Group, has flagged ProcureCo to the UK social housing sector as a tool that is cultivating engagement between SMEs and buyers.

James Wilmore’s 28 May article on ‘Procuring from small businesses – what is the role for social landlords?’ published in Inside Housing magazine, has signposted readers to ProcureCo – the pre-tender market engagement platform for social housing and public sector procurement. 

The article focuses on how changes to the procurement regime laid out in The Procurement Act (2023) and due to be rolled out in October, have been partly designed to make it easier for SMEs to win public sector tenders and contracts. The article cites the UK Government’s stated aims that the new legislation “will help SMEs to secure a ‘greater share’ of around £300bn of expenditure per year” and “remove bureaucratic barriers and level the playing field for smaller businesses, so that they can compete for more contracts”. 

John Wallace, Director of Procurement at Clarion Housing Group and Chair of ProcureCo’s Advisory Board, has been the social housing sector’s lead in liaising with the Cabinet Office on changes to the procurement legislation. He is confident that the new regime will open new doors for SMEs. 

ProcureCo, the tool for pre-tender market engagement

In the article, John mentions how Clarion Housing Group is using ProcureCo as a tool to conduct pre-tender market engagement: “Although we are required by the new Procurement Act to publish our pipelines or procurement requirements, we’ll also be publishing them on ProcureCo, where suppliers can register and get access to both”. 

ProcureCo Founder / Director Moira Skinner has responded to the article, saying: “we are excited to be welcoming more buyers and suppliers on to the ProcureCo platform every day, as we continue to demystify the public sector procurement process for suppliers and facilitate meaningful pre-tender market engagement between buyers and suppliers – ahead of the new procurement regime going live in October”.

Resources

Read the full article in Inside Housing’s digital edition (please note this content is behind a paywall £) at:

• ‘Procuring from small businesses – what is the role for social landlords?’, James Wilmore, Inside Housing, 28 May 2024