Keeping it local

Sunderland's economy is worth about £5.7bn and growing it is one of the City Council's priorities.

A larger economy benefits us all - more and better paid jobs means a better quality of life but also more people spending more money locally.

How the council spends its money can help with this - last year we spent £298m with 5,000 different suppliers. £90m of that was spent with Sunderland based organisations and we're doing more to make sure we give local companies the best opportunities. The largest areas of spend are construction, engineering and adult and children's social care.

We can't buy everything locally for a number of reasons, including Public Procurement Law and not all of our needs can be met by local companies, but our market engagement team works with suppliers to maximise the opportunities for local companies:

- Through Area Committee budgets, local projects are delivered by local businesses and VCS organisations. 

- Our quotations process is by invitation and we strive to select local suppliers to bid.

- Our tenders (over the EU threshold) are all advertised, and we hold supplier briefings locally.

You can find out more about the council's procurement processes here