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(01) Conference notes with concern the lack of government support for UK industrial supply chains and the inevitable consequences for jobs and economic growth. Conference recognises that public procurement policy should not focus on cost alone and that tendering processes should give due consideration to economic and social factors, such as job creation and skills development. Conference acknowledges it is vital to the future of UK manufacturing that public authorities include community benefit clauses in tendered contracts, which can allow specification of the development of local skills, local recruitment, and reinvestment in local communities as part of procurement spending. (02) Conference understands that UK manufacturing simply cannot afford to lose out on major public infrastructure projects, as was the case with the £790 million contract to supply the steel for the Forth Road Bridge. Tata Steel’s plant at Dalzell, just down the road from the construction site, could have supplied more than one third of the steel required but community benefit clauses were not part of the deal and the contract went to producers in China, Poland and Spain. (03) Conference notes that public authorities in France and Germany make far greater use of community benefit clauses to the great advantage of their domestic manufacturing industries, and that the use of community benefit clauses is compatible with EU law. Conference calls on the GFTU to campaign for greater support for UK manufacturing through targeted and intelligent public procurement policies, and for the GFTU and affiliate unions to lobby for the greater use of community benefit clauses in tendering processes.
Public Procurement and UK Manufacturing
Resolution 11
GFTU | BGCM Resolutions 2013/2015