Every year government spends over £341 billion on public procurement. That money doesn’t just buy services – it pays the wages of care workers, cleaners, housing staff and others who keep communities running.

Because of its scale, procurement can either reinforce inequality – through low pay, insecure contracts and the dominance of large firms – or it can reduce it, by supporting good jobs, fair wages and locally rooted organisations.

Our response to the Government’s consultation jointly produced with the Strategic Inequalities Alliance and the Equalities Trust calls for bolder action: making the Real Living Wage a standard in every public contract, giving Public Value Services more flexibility to act free of competition, and creating stronger systems of accountability so smaller organisations can challenge poor practice.

Handled boldly, procurement reform can reduce poverty, discrimination and inequality. Handled cautiously, it will simply repackage old problems.

Now is the time to be bold.

Take a look at our response to the Government’s proposals Procurement for Public good – response to Government consultation on procurement – BetterforUs, Strategic Equalities Alliance and the Equalities Trust