Hamilton, NZ – Mayoral candidate Sarah Thomson says that as mayor she’ll lead efforts to ‘back local’ and increase the council’s use of local suppliers.

“Spending locally keeps more money circulating within our Hamilton economy, which has a positive flow-on effect,” says Thomson. “It supports local jobs and helps keep talented young people here.

“With a nationwide shortage of skilled infrastructure workers, we need to be doing all we can to retain skilled people in our region.”

In Thomson’s experience, local businesses are often easier to communicate with, faster to respond when issues arise, and have a better understanding of local issues.

She notes that the council’s current procurement policy includes a small weighting for local impact, but there’s no reporting on how effective this is — or what percentage of council spending actually stays local.

“The first step is to start measuring how much spend stays in the local economy so we’ve got a baseline to work from,” Thomson says.

To help shift the dial toward more local suppliers, Thomson is proposing that the council explore breaking up larger contracts into smaller packages. This would create more entry points for local firms and help keep the local market competitive.

Secondly, Thomson wants to see the council’s tendering process simplified where possible, making it more attractive and accessible for small and medium-sized suppliers to engage with.

She also wants to see greater council support for capacity-building initiatives that help local businesses strengthen their ability to put forward quality tenders.

“Local suppliers might actually be the best ones to do the job, but they don’t always have dedicated teams to write tenders like the big firms do,” says Thomson.

“We need to work together to remove unnecessary barriers for small and medium-sized local businesses competing for projects."

“The council spends hundreds of millions each year to run the city and build infrastructure. Let’s get maximum value from that spend — including strengthening our local economy and supporting local jobs.”

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