The government has promised a “revolution” in how hundreds of billions of pounds of public sector cash is spent, and councils and housing associations are expected to play a key role. This shake-up is being brought about by the Cabinet Office’s Procurement Act 2023, which finally came into force in February.

Housing providers hope the act’s new rules and regulations will do more than replace the awkward old tick-box regime with one that better fits modern ways of doing business. This new era of procurement promises new flexibilities, the freedom to negotiate with suppliers, and the ability for buyers to give more weight to social values instead of favouring the lowest price. They hope it will transform procurement in the sector.

“Procurement in housing has previously been a bit about holding your nose and having to go through a process,” says Gwen Beeken, managing lead at Procure Plus, a sector-owned not-for-profit body helping providers in the North West prepare for the changes.

“But this act allows you to set and measure values in contracts which relate to your own organisation,” Ms Beeken adds. “It is no longer about just saying, ‘Please, buy this.’ You can now use procurement to add value to your business.”

John Wallace, director of procurement at Clarion Housing Group, who led the sector’s talks with the Cabinet Office on the act, says it is a “real opportunity” to do “proper procurement”, which the restrictions of the previous regime had prevented. “We can now do the sorts of things the private sector does,” he states.

It all sounds very promising. But just how excited should social landlords be about the official rhetoric? Can procurement really be revolutionary?

To find out, Inside Housing spoke to housing procurement professionals who have been gearing up for this reform since it was first publicly floated in the Transforming Public Procurement Green Paper in 2020.

The experts point to four key changes in the act which they believe will radically alter the way they manage procurement and how it is seen more widely within housing associations and councils. These are: a new flexible competitive procedure; freedom to negotiate with potential suppliers before and during the tender process; requirements to keep tabs on contracts by collecting and publishing key performance indicators on them; and the need to give suppliers advanced notice of their pipeline of work.

The competitive flexible procedure is the “poster boy or girl” of the new regime, says Emma Briggs, director of procurement and sustainability at Metropolitan Thames Valley. It effectively allows public sector contract commissioners to design a procurement process from scratch, as long as they stick to the rules around transparency and timeframes.

“It will make it easier for us to design creative and innovative bespoke processes that ultimately get us and the supplier the best outcome,” Ms Briggs says.

“It’s almost like a clean sheet of paper,” adds Martin Cawthorn, director of procurement at L&Q. “That can be a bit scary, but it is also a massive opportunity. You can design, articulate and develop your own process as long as it is transparent and equal for all parties.”

Jenna Hicken, director of operations at the South East Consortium, says the competitive flexible procedure will help housing associations to more easily engage with small and medium-sized businesses in their patches and give weight to social benefits, such as apprenticeship and work experience opportunities, when deciding which suppliers win contracts.