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UK government plans to strip back 'social value' procurement rules and end what…

2026-08-05 · 07:28 UTC ·@jo3hill ·3 min read

Brief

The post argues the UK Government is moving to strip back broad 'social value' procurement rules—ending what the author calls 'Everythingism'—by narrowing the list of objectives to things like higher-paying jobs, apprenticeships and routes for NEETs, exempting sub-£1m contracts from social-value requirements, and (contentiously) considering a rise from 10% to 20% social-value weighting on contracts over £5m. Re:State’s research, cited here and summarized in the paper 'Procure and simple', claims the current 10% social-value mark scheme inflates costs, pushes small firms out of tendering (the author asserts 20% of contracts get one or zero bidders), and concentrates markets. The post welcomes steps to target 10 high-growth firms for more contracts and urges further measures—direct awards or exemptions—to open procurement to startups and scaleups across the £300+ billion public-procurement market.

Why it matters

UK government plans to strip back 'social value' procurement rules and end what the author calls 'Everythingism', narrowing objectives to make procurement more competitive (source: @jo3hill, linked FT story citing Louise Haigh).

Key details

  • Currently 10% of tender marks go to social value; proposals include removing social value requirements from contracts under £1 million and possibly raising the social-value weighting to 20% on contracts above £5 million (the author says the latter would worsen cost and quality unless metrics are sharply shortened).
  • Re:State research (paper: 'Procure and simple') finds 'Everythingism' increases overheads and prices, pricing small firms out of public-sector bids — the author claims 20% of government contracts attract one or zero bidders — and notes procurement governs over £300 billion of the economy.
  • Cabinet Office has asked departments to identify 10 high-growth companies for targeted contracts; the author urges more proactive routes for startups/scaleups (targeted direct awards, exemptions from social-value weightings) to spur innovation.
Source evidence

This is big. The Government is going to strip back social value procurement rules, and end Everythingism in procurement. This is a great step towards making procurement markets much better and more competitive.

It’s been a big topic of our research at Re:State in the last year, so let me explain:

  • When government puts out a tender for bids, 10% of the ‘marks’ go to companies who can show they meet various ‘social value’ rules. There’s a whole gamut of guidance which requires them to prove they are things like carbon-neutral, moving jobs outside of London, revitalising high streets, DEI, and many more. These might all be important objectives to the government, but furthering them all through procurement distracts companies from delivering the core purpose of the contract, and adds cost – a phenomenon we call ‘Everythingism’. It’s particularly bad for small companies who get priced out of selling to the public sector because the overheads become so high, so they don’t compete at all – making the market much more concentrated in the long run. 20% of contracts government lets have one or even zero companies bidding for them – a nightmare for the taxpayer.

  • It looks like the Government are going to start cutting social value objectives and focus the list on these categories: higher paying jobs, apprenticeships, and routes for NEETs into work. This is a big improvement, not just because the list is shorter but also because these are easier objectives for companies to target, measure and quantify than the vaguer goals which are coming off the list.

  • They are also planning to entirely remove social value requirements from contracts under £1 million in value is very welcome. As we called for in our paper ‘Procure and simple’, giving small companies routes to bypass social value to win work is essential – the system is just too intensive for them to get work at that small scale.

  • However, it also looks like they’re also considering boosting the weighting towards social value objectives on contracts worth above £5 million, from the 10% of marks they currently get in a tender to 20%. That would be a mistake, and one which will mean more contracts are delivered at lower quality and higher cost – the two most important bits of what procurement should deliver. But if the set of metrics that 20% will be awarded on are significantly shortened, then that does slightly mitigate the impact. But I still hope this part of the proposal doesn’t make it through to the policy changes in the autumn.

  • Interestingly, the Cabinet Office are also asking departments to draw up a list of 10 high-growth companies to target for more contracts. We called for this approach in ‘Procure and simple’ because the distortions against startups and scaleups entering the procurement market are so extreme that I think you do need a counterbalance, and to focus on ways you give more contracts to them for innovative new products. The biggest problem with procurement policy is that it’s entirely ‘buyer-led’ – contracts which government puts out to solicit bids for. There’s basically no route for a company offering a genuinely innovative new product to come and sell it into the public sector – which massively hampers startups and scaleups. There’s plenty more they could do to eases the path for high-growth companies – for example, more targeted direct awards for innovative products, or exempting them entirely from social value weightings on contracts of any value (both possible under the current Procurement Act).

I hope they take this seriously. Procurement rules govern over £300 billion of the economy. There’s a huge opportunity to free up the red tape stops British companies growing, and also stops them becoming great exporters to other governments, because they can’t even get a foothold working for their own Government here at home.

ft.com/content/9878a2e4-3ac5… @LOS_Fisher

Link

UK to strip back procurement rules to focus on job creation, says Louise Haigh

Andy Burnham’s de facto deputy PM says requirements for businesses vying for Whitehall contracts will be streamlined
ft.com