Most regeneration projects follow a pattern: a council announces plans, large contractors win bids, and local businesses watch from the sidelines.
Cheshire West and Chester Council broke the pattern.
On February 16, 2025, they hosted a “Meet the Buyers” event in Northwich. The goal was simple: connect local construction and building firms with the contractors leading major regeneration projects before the work began.
The results show how procurement drives regional economic development.
Traditional Procurement Locks Out Local Businesses
Public sector procurement operates at scale: large contracts, complex requirements, established relationships. Local businesses can’t compete.
Research shows that only 34.8% of UK local authority procurement spend goes to firms within the local boundary. When Manchester City Council analyzed its spending, it found that just 25 pence of every £1 in procurement spend was re-spent in the city through local workers and supply chains.
That gap is lost economic opportunity.
Studies from the New Economics Foundation demonstrate that money spent at local businesses generates 2-3 times more economic benefit for local economies compared to spending at non-local businesses. For every £1 spent locally, up to £3 in additional economic value is created in the community.
When public money leaves the region, the multiplier effect leaves with it.
How Cheshire West Changed the Game
The council identified three major regeneration projects in Northwich: residential development, commercial revitalization, and infrastructure improvements.
Instead of standard procurement channels, they created a direct engagement event.
What the quote should reveal: Specific frustration with past projects where local businesses were locked out. Should include: a recent example (name a project), what happened (which out-of-region firm won), and the moment they decided to change approach. Tone: candid, slightly frustrated. Avoid: generic “we wanted to support local business” statements.
The timing mattered. The event happened before construction began. Local businesses had time to prepare, form partnerships, and compete.
The structure mattered. The council brought together the primary contractors—Medlock, VINCI UK Developments, and Equans—in one location. This hub-and-spoke model cut transaction costs.
The scope mattered. The initiative covered multiple project types, creating opportunities for businesses of different sizes and specializations.
What the quote should reveal: Commercial reason for engaging local firms—not corporate social responsibility talk. Should include: specific business advantage (speed, local knowledge, logistics, community relations, cost savings). Name a concrete benefit they’ve seen on other projects. Tone: pragmatic, bottom-line focused. Avoid: anything that sounds like PR or virtue signaling.
Why Hub-and-Spoke Works
Traditional procurement requires local businesses to identify opportunities, research requirements, and pitch to multiple contractors. It’s expensive in time and resources.
Meet the Buyers inverts this. Contractors come to the businesses. Information flows fast. Relationships form in hours instead of months.
Data from similar initiatives supports this approach. The STAR Councils’ joint Meet the Buyer event in 2022 benefited more than 200 businesses through direct interaction with public sector buyers. Houston’s Office of Business Opportunity has hosted these events for over a decade with consistent success.
What the quote should reveal: Concrete outcome from attending the event. Must include: which contractor they met with, what specific work package they discussed (with scope/value if possible), and what partnership they formed or action they took. Name their business and specialty. Tone: excited but grounded. Avoid: vague “great opportunity” statements without specifics.
Why Residential Development Creates Longer-Term Opportunity
Northwich’s regeneration strategy centers on housing development, which creates different dynamics than commercial-only projects.
Residential development generates sustained demand. Construction phases extend over longer periods. Maintenance and service contracts follow initial builds. The Local Government Association confirms that residential development makes areas livelier throughout the day and evening, creating ongoing business opportunities beyond construction.
Town center housing addresses immediate needs and delivers broader economic benefits.
Local businesses gain access to long-term revenue streams, not just one-time contracts.
Solving the Scale Problem
Large contract sizes are the primary barrier for small and medium enterprises in public procurement.
SMEs represent 99.9% of UK businesses—over 5.5 million firms. Yet smaller companies deliver less than one-third of public sector projects.
SMEs lack resources to cover large contracts. Research shows that splitting contracts into smaller lots increases their chances of winning work. Bidding consortia have the biggest impact on SME success.
The Meet the Buyers event facilitated exactly this kind of partnership formation.
When local businesses meet contractors early, they form consortia before bid deadlines, identify complementary capabilities, and structure partnerships to compete for larger contracts.
What the quote should reveal: Real example of being locked out. Must include: specific contract (what project, approximate value), what the barrier was (bond requirement, portfolio requirement, scale requirement), and why they were technically capable but administratively blocked. Include numbers. Tone: matter-of-fact frustration. Avoid: whining or blaming—just state facts.
The Economic Multiplier
The UK government set an aspiration that 33% of procurement spend should go to small businesses. Crown Commercial Service spent £2.2 billion directly with SMEs in 2021/22—an increase of £687 million from the previous year.
Those numbers are policy intent. The Northwich model shows how to deliver it.
When local businesses win contracts, several things happen:
Local hiring increases. Regional workers earn wages that get spent in the community.
Supply chain localization grows. Local subcontractors and suppliers benefit from increased demand.
Business capacity expands. Successful contract completion builds capability for future opportunities.
Tax revenue stays regional. Business profits and employee income generate local tax revenue.
Economic multiplier effects depend on supply chain localization. Public investment drives regional development when money circulates locally.
What This Reveals About Procurement Strategy
The Northwich initiative demonstrates principles that apply to other regions.
Early Engagement Creates Competitive Advantage
Local businesses that engage early can scale their capabilities before bid deadlines. They have time to secure financing, hire staff, or acquire equipment. This levels the playing field.
Technical Assistance Addresses Entry Barriers
Many qualified local businesses lose opportunities because they struggle with procurement processes, not technical capability. Events that integrate technical assistance—explaining requirements, clarifying processes, answering questions—remove these barriers.
Multi-Project Coordination Provides Stability
Single projects create boom-and-bust cycles. Multiple coordinated projects create sustained demand that allows businesses to maintain stable employment and invest in growth. The diversified pipeline reduces risk.
Stakeholder Voice Integration Builds Credibility
When both contractors and public officials publicly commit to local engagement, it signals a genuine opportunity. Companies invest time when they believe real opportunities exist.
What the quote should reveal: Initial skepticism and what overcame it. Should include: why they were skeptical (experience with council events that went nowhere), what almost made them skip it, and the specific moment or detail that convinced them this was real (who showed up, what information was shared, time commitment). Tone: skeptical, turning cautiously optimistic. Avoid: fully positive testimonials—need the tension of doubt.
From Extraction to Retention
Traditional procurement optimizes for cost and scale, which means awarding contracts to the largest firms regardless of location. The result is economic extraction: public investment flows in, then immediately flows out through non-local contractors.
This alternative model prioritizes retention and strengthening local capacity.
This requires different metrics: local spend percentage, jobs created in the region, and secondary economic activity generated—not just cost per unit or project completion time.
Procurement decisions have economic development consequences. Public investment strengthens or weakens regional economic resilience depending on how contracts are awarded.
What Comes Next
The February 2025 event drew [NUMBER] local businesses and resulted in [NUMBER] direct contractor meetings.
What the quote should reveal: Measurable outcomes from the event. Must include: attendance numbers, number of one-on-one meetings held, partnerships formed (with number), expressions of interest or bids submitted, any early contract awards or shortlists. Compare to expectations. Tone: measured but optimistic, data-driven. Avoid: “exceeded expectations” without numbers to back it up.
But the real test comes in contract awards over the next 18-24 months. Will local businesses actually win meaningful work? Will these partnerships translate into successful bids?
If Northwich’s three regeneration projects match Manchester’s baseline of 25p per £1 staying local, that’s the floor. If they hit the 2-3x multiplier that localized procurement typically generates, the math changes: every £10 million in public investment could generate £20-30 million in regional economic activity.
The difference between those two outcomes—extraction versus retention—is worth millions to the regional economy.
Lessons for Other Regions
The Northwich model is replicable, but most councils won’t adopt it.
The barrier isn’t technical—it’s institutional. Procurement departments optimize for compliance and cost containment. Economic development teams lack procurement authority. The coordination required to host these events crosses departmental silos that most councils struggle to bridge.
The key elements:
Timing coordination. Engage local businesses before procurement processes begin, not after.
Transaction cost reduction. Create centralized events that bring contractors and businesses together efficiently.
Pipeline diversification. Coordinate multiple projects to create sustained opportunities rather than one-time contracts.
Partnership facilitation. Structure events to enable consortium formation and capability matching.
Technical assistance integration. Address process barriers alongside technical requirements.
This requires coordination across departments and stakeholders, commitment from contractors to engage with local businesses, and metrics that value economic development alongside cost efficiency.
The potential return is significant: public investment that generates 2-3 times the local economic impact through supply chain localization.
Northwich is running the experiment. The question for other councils isn’t whether this approach works—the economics are clear. The question is whether they’re willing to reorganize how they work to capture that value.
Every council faces the same choice: optimize procurement for cost and compliance, or redesign it as an economic development tool.
The difference is measured in jobs, businesses, and regional resilience.
Northwich chose the second path. Whether other regions follow depends on whether they see procurement as paperwork or as power.