GOING FOR A HOME WIN

When spending public money, it’s important to work it very hard and extract every single possible benefit. We need to take a fresh look public sector procurement of goods and services in Wales and ensure that an increasing percentage of our public sector spend is targeted towards local businesses and local suppliers. 

The Welsh public sector spends £4.3 billion pounds every year buying goods and services from the private sector, which supports some 98,000 jobs. This sum is four times larger than what Wales raises in business rates and almost three times as much as corporation tax. At present close to 52% of that is spent in Wales compared to Germany, which spends 99% of its procurement budget within its own borders, and France, which spends 98%. 

When taxpayers’ money is being spent, it is important that every single possible added value be squeezed out of it and it is vital that we spend as much of possible of it as we can to support Welsh businesses.  For every 1% increase in the proportion of money being spent in Wales we could grow 2,000 new jobs. Plaid Cymru plans to add 25% to the current percentage of 52% and create 50,000 new jobs. This would boost local businesses and local suppliers and safeguard and create valuable jobs in the private sector and maximise the value of the public sector procurement spend.