After the collapse of UK construction company Carillion many SME suppliers are asking the question: “how do I win government contracts?”.
The UK Government works with thousands of private sector contracts and spends billions of pounds with them. Contractors come in all shapes in sizes – micro businesses, sole traders, SMEs and global corporate companies.
Find out more about winning government contracts below.
How much is spent on Government contracts?
The Government must be transparent and accountable for the money it spends on public services. In the 2015-16 financial year, The National Audit Office (NAO), has estimated that more than £250bn of central and local government money was spent with private suppliers – one-third of total government spend during that time.
What types of Government contracts can I bid for?
The Government purchases a wide range of goods and services that help the day to day running of public sector bodies.
A good example of how the Government spends its money is NHS tenders. Money is required for drugs and medical equipment; however, budget must also be set aside for catering, cleaning and maintenance services for hospitals and other NHS buildings. In 2015-2016 around £136bn was spent with NHS suppliers.
Why does the Government want to work with SMEs?
In recent years the UK Government has removed many of the barriers that previously deterred SME businesses from submitting applications to tender to encourage small businesses to do work with the public sector.
In 2015 it was announced that by 2020, the Government wants to spend £1 in every £3 with small businesses. That year the Government also announced that the entire public sector supply chain would be paid within 30 days of invoice date and that the Government was abolishing pre-qualification questionnaires for low value public sector contracts.
The Government is set to continue this support. Last year, Theresa May said that:
“SMEs are the backbone of our country. I want to build an economy that works for all and that means working with, and listening to, smaller firms.”
This makes now an excellent time for your business to start looking for tender opportunities with the UK government.
How can I find Government tenders?
England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland all have separate public sector procurement portals, which makes it difficult for SMEs to keep track of government tenders that are relevant to their business.
The best option for your SME business is to use a UK-wide portal like Tracker. Our portal has many tools that can help you find government tenders before your competitors do. We monitor over 2000 sources daily, making sure that your businesses like yours never miss government tender opportunities.
We published 1,021,896 public sector contracts last year. Our customers can tailor their tender alerts to suit the services or goods they supply, which means that you will never be sent contract opportunities that are not relevant to your business.
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Our customers have access to more tendering intelligence and opportunities as we publish more contract and award notices than anyone else in Europe.
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The post The SME Guide for Winning Government Contracts appeared first on Tracker Intelligence.
