The influential U.K.-based think-tank, the Adam Smith Institute, claims the U.K.’s public procurement rules, emphasising ‘social values’, are costing taxpayers billions and hindering economic growth. The Express has more.
The top Westminster research centre, the Adam Smith Institute (ASI), has said that little-known public procurement rules are costing taxpayers billions, and hampering much-needed economic growth.
New research by the think-tank has revealed that a ‘woke’ law that prioritises ‘social values’ over value-for-money is costing the British taxpayer billions more than equivalent economies.
Public procurement costs the Treasury coffers £379 billion a year, well above the OECD average.
The ASI’s new paper – ’The Price of Everything, the Social Value of Nothing’ – has focused the spotlight on these little-known rules holding back the British economy.
A law introduced by the Coalition Government in 2012 called ‘The Social Value Act’ proscribes thirty pages of criteria that businesses, regardless of their size, must adhere to.
Rather than civil servants awarding contracts based on an obvious value-for-money basis, firms must instead be able to prove their business tackles economic inequality, dedicates staff to “protect and improve” the environment, and uses costly cybersecurity licensure – even for non-tech firms.
The latest Social Value model used by the Government sets out five primary themes that must be “tackled” through procurement: COVID-19 recovery, economic inequality, climate change, equal opportunity and well-being.
The ASI has now said the rules must be scrapped, in order to save taxpayers large amounts of cash and get the economy growing in the most efficient way possible.
Maxwell Marlow, the report’s author, says current rules unfairly disadvantages small and medium-sized British businesses, adding costs and delays on to suppliers, and gives no accountability to taxpayers.
Mr. Marlow slams the rules as smelling “of a cynical attempt to change businesses to get its ‘values’”.
Worth reading in full, as is the full Adam Smith Institute paper.
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