The cabinet office minister with responsibility for construction has said that more will be done to ensure that small builders and construction companies are not shut out of public procurement processes.
Chloe Smith MP was speaking at the annual conference of the Principal Contractors Group within the National Federation of Builders (NFB).
She said that the government understands that the processes can be “bureaucratic, time consuming and at times eye wateringly expensive”, but called on NFB members not to be shy in reporting “bad, or even mad, procurement practices”.
She was speaking following the publication of the NFB’s 2012 report on the matter, entitled Procurement: At a crossroads. The report found that some 40 per cent of the respondents spend at least a month every year filling out bid process forms, while around 4 per cent spend more than