Buy Local Campaign - Hartlepool

Dear Sirs

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

Thank you for your email of 19th November 2011 requesting information about Hartlepool Borough Council's expenditure on Buy Local Campaign.

Your request is being dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and will be answered within twenty working days.

If you have any queries about this request do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours faithfully

Alyson Carman
Freedom of Information Officer/Solicitor

Legal Division
Hartlepool Borough Council
Level 3 Civic Centre
Victoria Road
Hartlepool

Tel: 01429 523182
Fax: 01429 523481

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Dear Jim

 

I am writing in response to your Freedom of Information request and with
reference to today’s telephone conversation.

 

As you are aware, due to circumstances beyond my control, I will not be
able to provide the response within the statutory timescale and you have
agreed that it is entirely acceptable for us to meet early in January to
clarify your request with a view to the council providing as full and
transparent a response thereafter.

 

Thank you again for your understanding.

 

Yours

 

 

 

Mick

 

Mick Emerson

Principal Economic Development Officer (Business Services)

Hartlepool Borough Council

Hartlepool Enterprise Centre

Brougham Terrace

HARTLEPOOL   TS24 8EY

 

T:  01429 867677

M: 07827 230403

F:  01429 264304

 

European Union

Investing in Your Future

 

European Regional Development Fund 2007-2013

 

 

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Dear Mr Gillespie
Thank you for your request dated 19^th November.
 
Please find the information you require below.
 
 
 
The “Buy Local” Campaign commenced in 2009 in conjunction with businesses
based in Hartlepool Enterprise Centre and has developed organically since
that time, encouraging businesses from across the Town to register.  To
date, the role of the Borough Council has been to facilitate the
development of the campaign.  This has been undertaken through direct
marketing and by encouraging businesses registered to use the “Buy Local”
branding within their own marketing materials.
 
Costs for the direct campaign to date are as follows:
 
Phase 1, 2009, involved:
 
The design, development, production and delivery of 2 booklets  -      
£9,121.00
Advertising in Hartlepool Mail                                  -      
£2.544.24
 
Phase 2, 2010/11 involved:
 
Website development                                             -      
£2,790.00
Additional Year 2 hosting                                       -      
£   105.00
 
The production of stationery                                    -      
£1,066.00
Consumer tags                                                   -      
£1,404.00
Promotional Leaflets/Banner Stands                              -      
£1,312.00
 
Advertising in Hartlepool Mail 2010                             -      
£4,793.90
Advertising in Hartlepool Mail 2011                             -      
£3,509.81
Other advertising costs 2010                                    -      
£1,105.00
Other advertising costs 2011                                    -      
£   110.00
 
Staff costs for the campaign are not maintained separately and are
therefore not able to be determined.
 
Turning to the measurement of the campaign, key to its success and
development to date has been the number of businesses and consumers
registered, approximate current details being:
 
Businesses      -         200
Consumers       -       1,000
 
In order to continue to progress the campaign, a recent partnership has
been formed with the Federation of Small Businesses and Hartlepool Mail. 
This will lead to the Hartlepool Mail concentrating on the
consumer/retailer/service aspects of the campaign, Hartlepool Borough
Council will concentrate on Business to Business aspects and the
Federation will help draw together a number of offers aimed specifically
at helping start up businesses in Hartlepool.  Further details of this
partnership will become clear over the forthcoming months.
 
Finally, the campaign has not concentrated on Hartlepool Borough Council
procurement, and whilst the Council is keen to support its local supply
base, there is a balance to be struck. The Council  is pragmatic in its
approach to supporting the local economy and does recognise that in some
cases it is preferable to make use of larger regional or national
contracts, usually where significant economies of scale are available, for
example, the purchase of gas and electricity, stationery, food etc.  We
believe that by adopting the right strategy in terms of these large scale
arrangements we are able to maximise Value for Money for the Council
whilst supporting the local economy through the purchase of other goods
and services which are less impacted by volumes and more suited to the
local supply base.  That said, there have been a number of changes have
been introduced over the same period that the campaign has been running,
as follows:
 
Mandatory invitation for local suppliers to bid on any request for a
quotation
 
In order to support and to be seen to support the Council’s local supplier
base a CPR amendment has been adopted that requires all Council Officers
to invite a minimum of two local suppliers (where available) to submit a
quotation.
 
This proposal conforms to a requirement articulated by the Executive
Member for Procurement and has hitherto only been included as guidance to
procurers.  This applies in the cases that quotations are sought and that
local suppliers are available for the goods, services or works being
procured.
 
This amendments requires a minimum of two local suppliers (where
available) to be invited to bid, however this is a minimum and the wording
of the amendment will allow Council Officers to increase this number (if
deemed appropriate).
 
Increases to the various quotation and tender thresholds
 
The North East Regional Improvement and Efficiency Programme (NERIEP) have
carried out an evaluation of quotation and tender threshold levels across
the 12 Local Authorities in the region and proposals were made to
harmonise minimum quotation/tender thresholds.
 
 
 
Following on from this work by the RIEP, a minimum tender threshold of
£50,000 was proposed for across the region. The RIEP research demonstrated
that whilst some Council’s had thresholds below this figure, others have
thresholds well in excess of this figure, i.e. £75,000.
 
The harmonisation of tender thresholds is designed to provide a consistent
marketplace for suppliers in the region. In addition, the tender process
has been identified as problematic for many local businesses, particularly
SME’s, and third sector with claims that it is overly bureaucratic, time
consuming and expensive to operate.
 
Following the consultation process the CPR’s have been amended to increase
the existing levels to £60,000 for goods and services and to £100,000 for
Works related tenders.
 
This increase in the tender threshold will effectively reduce the number
of tenders the Council undertakes and increase the volume of the less
bureaucratic quotation process, which will go some way to address some of
the concerns expressed by the supplier base as mentioned above.
 
Clearly there is an element of concern that raising the thresholds in this
way could potentially reduce the amount of control the Council exerts over
a significant volume of its expenditure, however, the Corporate
Procurement Team is introducing an e-quotation tool which will have a
phased introduction across the whole Council. As already agreed with the
Portfolio Holder for Finance & Procurement, use of this system will be
mandated (with only a few justifiable exceptions expected).
 
So, whilst we are proposing making less use of the rigorous tender process
we are, at the same time, introducing a system to vastly improve the
current quotation gathering processes used across the Council thereby
ensuring increased compliance with the CPR’s and an easier procurement
process for our suppliers particularly our local SME’s and third sector.
 
Further recent activities taken to support the local supply base
 
Where possible, the Council has built in more sustainable measures into
our procurement procedures.
 
An example of this would be asking suppliers how they would bring local
community benefit into the supply of a service e.g. By being a local
employer, and then build an obligation to provide further local benefits
into the contract with suppliers.
 
These requirements encourage local suppliers to bid and where the bigger
regional or national supplier bid they are encouraged to utilise a local
supply chain.
 
An example of this would be Balfour Beatty undertaking a large school
building contract where at the moment

* 67% of subcontractors are within 25 mile radius of Hartlepool.
* 20% of the workforce live within the Hartlepool post code.
* £1.63m to date on the Contract (with a total value of £12 million) has
been spent on Hartlepool suppliers such as D H Potters (builders) NES
(Security) Wilsons (Roofing) Niramax (Waste Disposal)

 
In addition the Council has a substantial in-house service provision which
means we are able to engage with the supply chain at a lower level.  This
enables us to package work in such a way it is more attractive to local
suppliers and we often engage local companies either as subcontractors or
actually “second” their employees into our teams to carry out works e.g.
Gus Robinson Developments.
 
We also have partnership arrangements with 2 local contractors who have
been successful in bidding for building works which results in a greater
percentage of building works being undertaken locally i.e. Gus Robinson
Developments (a Hartlepool Company) and Dunelm (part of the local Esh
Group).
 
We also build Training and Employment into our larger contracts ensuring
local residents benefit.  An example of this would be through Taylor
Wimpey who have undertaken a large housing regeneration project with
employment opportunities and apprenticeships being created for Hartlepool
residents.
 
The Council has actually led on the development of this Targeted Training
and Recruitment for the 12 North East Local Authorities.
 
 
We hope that this information deals with your request, however if you are
dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to ask
for an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted
within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your original
request and should be sent to Chief Executives Department, Legal Services
Division, Level 3, Civic Centre, Hartlepool, TS24 8AY,
[email address].
 
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF, [1]www.ico.gov.uk.
 
Regards
 
Leanne Purdy
 
 
 
 
 
 
Leanne Purdy
Legal Support Clerk
Legal Division
Chief Executive's Department
Hartlepool Borough Council
 
 
 

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