‘Buy local’ campaign looks past postcode
Palmerston North City councillors have been shocked to learn that the council does less than half of its spending with local businesses.
That could be about to change, with the adoption of something less catchy than the ‘‘buy local’’ policy councillors first envisaged.
It will be a ‘‘local impact procurement’’ policy, which avoids unlawful discrimination against non-local firms, but allows the local effects of council choices for spending to be considered.
Council procurement manager Julie Pedley said defining what was local was more complicated than looking at a firm’s postcode.
Some suppliers were based in Palmerston North, but did most of their business elsewhere, whereas some based in other areas had a significant presence in the city.
It would allow the council to take into account what suppliers did for the region, rather than focus on where they were from.
‘‘We can’t discriminate against non-local suppliers, but we can acknowledge and reward what suppliers bring to the region,’’ Pedley said.
The council had to make sure it was getting value from spending ratepayers’ money, and had to give all suppliers a full and fair opportunity to compete.
But the law did allow local government to consider future public value as well as trying to reduce present costs.
Assessments of suppliers’ local contribution would take into consideration job creation, training opportunities for residents, and whether they used local contractors or produced goods locally.
Pedley said giving a firm’s local contribution a weighting of between 5 per cent and 15 per cent when considering spending decisions would help keep jobs and profits in the region.
Cr Karen Naylor said she had been shocked to learn only 48.5 per cent of the council’s spending was with local businesses.
‘‘I hope to see that percentage increase and see greater benefits for the local economy.’’
Cr Brent Barrett said the policy was a good first step. He said the next move should be to take into account the social and environmental effects of where the council spent its money.