Preston City Council Wins ‘Good Practice’ Label

Preston is one of the 97 European cities to be awarded the ‘Good Practice City’ label, by European exchange and learning program, URBACT, for its work on progressive procurement through spend analysis.

URBACT’s mission is to enable cities to work together and develop integrated solutions to common urban challenges through various ways. They use resources and know-how to strengthen the capacity of cities to urban strategy and action plans according to challenges.

In December 2016, cities were invited to submit their good practice via a short application form setting out how it matched with the URBACTs principles.

Preston’s submission focused on the work done in partnership with anchor institutions around spend analysis. It has also been used to inform how the council undertake procurement with the result that spend in the local economy and with Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) has increased.

The solution offered in the city’s plan is a method and means of changing behaviour around procurement so that it generates more local economic, social and environmental benefits. It also showed how the principles of Preston’s practice could be adapted to other cities’ situations and evidenced that it is sustainable and continuing.

Councillor Matthew Brown, Cabinet member for social justice, inclusion and policy, said:

“This is a great achievement for Preston. Receiving this award will see other cities across Europe look to Preston’s plan to move forward with their own strategies. The plan outlined will also help improve our local economy and hopefully see an increase in the number of local businesses and wealth retained here.”