Building boost
I wholeheartedly welcome the First Minister’s announcement that a Procurement Reform Bill has been sent to the Scottish Parliament. This legislation has been a long time coming, having originally been announced in the Scottish Government’s 2012 legislative programme.
The Scottish Building Federation recently highlighted the spiralling cost to Scottish construction firms of participating in public tenders. These costs now run to almost £100 million per year.
With the public sector providing an annual pipeline of construction contracts worth around £2 billion, this bill offers the potential to transform the efficiency of public procurement in Scotland.
By streamlining processes and cutting costs, it could encourage many more particularly smaller building firms to bid for public sector contracts.
We will look forward to scrutinising the detail over the coming months.
Vaughan Hart
Scottish Building Federation
Crichton’s Close