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16 Oct 2008
SMEs continue to face a number of hurdles when trying to win public sector contracts, a new report has suggested.
Published by the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA), the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the report concludes that improving access to government contracts could benefit the wider business community.
In March, Chancellor Alistair Darling unveiled plans to push 30 per cent of public sector deals through smaller contractors within five years (Channelweb, 17 March).
Further reading
Stephen Alambritis, a spokesperson for the FSB, said: “We would like to see the government put proposals in place for SMEs to tender for government contracts, as it helps both the economy and the local economy.
“In the US contracts are set aside for SMEs by law – in the UK when SMEs eventually find a public contract sometimes they are too big for smaller businesses to swallow.”
According to the report over three quarters of SMEs believe it is difficult to find out about government opportunities.
Alambritis stressed that the web portal Supply Route to Government (SR2G) aids SMEs in their search for public sector contracts within their local area, but charges businesses to search outside of it.
The report also revealed that over half of SMEs feel the tendering process and timscales require too much resource to respond.
Alambritis added that the timescales for contracts are not always ideal for SMEs: “Sometimes an SME will apply for a tender but it will not hit it for maybe 18 months. During that time the business is not contacted – that does not seem an issue for bigger companies, but SMEs need that comfort.”
In contrast Alambritis said the government may ask the SME to complete a report on the contract within four or five days, which he claimed was not enough time for some businesses to get the resources together.
Lee Bevan, managing director of reseller LeapFrog Audio Visual Information Technology (AVIT), said: “It would be interesting if contracts were to be broken down for SMEs, but it will not happen – nothing has been done since the announcement in the budget.”
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