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Growth Plan update
As a nation, we have experienced a week of economic volatility this week, with financial markets reacting to the Government's Growth Plan and the Bank of England warning of a “material risk” to the UK’s financial stability as a result. Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has announced he will set out a Medium-Term Fiscal Plan on 23 November. HM Treasury has said that this will set out further details on how the Government will ensure that debt falls as a share of GDP in the medium term, and update on progress of the Growth Plan.
The Government has said it will not reopen funding settlements for this Spending Review period – set in November last year – and you will no doubt have seen reports in the media that HM Treasury is expected to contact Government departments to find savings where possible and to live within existing budgets in order to help reduce the level of Government borrowing.
Energy
Energy support schemes
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has produced shareable assets and toolkits to help communicate the Energy Price Guarantee for households and the Energy Bill Relief Scheme for businesses and public sector organisations, to assist with rising energy costs. It is important to note that there is no need to apply to the schemes and discounts will be calculated automatically.
Find out how to optimise the way you manage / reduce your energy consumption and procure energy in our new National Energy Category Strategy for Local Government 2022 – energising procurement. We've designed this strategy to help local authorities optimise the way they manage energy. It includes good practice examples and case studies related to all areas of local government energy procurement.
Energy efficiency
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is inviting councils and social housing providers to bid for a share of up to £1.5 billion through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and Home Upgrade Grant schemes, to upgrade the energy efficiency of 130,000 homes. Wall and loft insulation, double glazing, heat pumps and solar panels are all measures that could be funded with upgrades expected to begin from early next year until March 2025.
Heat pumps
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has announced that the Government will provide more than £15 million for 24 projects to make low carbon heating, such as heat pumps, cheaper and easier to install. The Government has set a target of 600,000 pumps to be installed per year by 2028 and the funding is part of the second round of the Government’s Heat Pump Ready programme.
Carbon net zero (CNZ) funding and grants – new one-stop webpage
Crown Commercial Service (CCS) has developed a new Carbon net zero funding and grants webpage that brings all open grants and funding opportunities for net zero projects together in one place. The webpage will support public sector organisations to review available funding streams, funding providers and application dates. They can then engage with CCS to understand available routes to market for projects, and complementary agreements, to help deliver their CNZ solutions.
Free Department for Education (DfE) webinars for schools on buying services – autumn 2022
The Department for Education’s (DfE) autumn programme started this week and the Schools Commercial Team is hosting free webinars on how using DfE’s approved frameworks could save staff time and help schools get value for money. Full programme of autumn webinars
Levelling up – what's the procurement picture?
Read Tussell’s blog that looks at three of the key strands of the Levelling Up policy to unpick:
- how these policies have filtered down to public procurement
- which authorities are taking action
- which suppliers have helped to supply them.
e-learning course – Foundations of cyber resilience in local government supply chains
Our free e-learning course – Foundations of cyber resilience in local government supply chains provides local government procurement officers and contract managers with an in-depth introduction to cyber security, helping them to embed greater cyber resilience in supply chains by implementing cyber security best practice throughout the procurement cycle.
e-learning course – Modern slavery in public sector supply chains
As part of the Government’s efforts to tackling modern slavery in global supply chains, the Home Office’s Modern Slavery Unit and Joint Security and Resilience Centre have produced an e-learning course – Modern slavery in public sector supply chains (Government Commercial College login required). The course guides public sector commercial staff through the practical steps they can take throughout the commercial lifecycle to identify and mitigate modern slavery risks.
Procuring and Supplying – DDaT Unconference 2022
Wednesday 12 October, 10.00am–4.00pm | techUK, 10 St Bride Street, London EC4A 4AD
The Sourcing Playbook – autumn webinar series
Every Tuesday from 1 November to 6 December, 12.30pm–2.00pm | Zoom
Regional retrofit action planning
Tuesday 6 December, 10.00am–11.30am | Zoom
The LGA Procurement team manages several LGA webpages dedicated to your needs. Please email guy.head@local.gov.uk if you would like any information added to our webpages:
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