Pilot Project – Local Food Procurement in Kent and Medway

Description

The UK’s public sector food and drink procurement represents an annual expenditure of approximately £5 billion. This significant spending, encompassing schools, hospitals, prisons, the armed forces and local authorities, presents an important opportunity to support a range of economic, environmental and health outcomes. Public food procurement aligns with the priority outcomes set out in the Government’s ‘Towards a Good Food Cycle’ framework (2025), which forms part of the emerging national food strategy. These outcomes include: •An improved food environment that supports healthier and more environmentally sustainable food sales. •Access for all to safe, affordable, healthy, convenient and appealing food options. •Conditions for the food sector to thrive and grow sustainably, including investment in innovation and productivity, and fairer more transparent supply chains. Within Kent and Medway, the agri-food and agri-tech sectors represent an important and established part of the local economy, with strengths across production, processing, distribution and wider supply chain activity. The region is widely recognised as having a nationally significant agri-food sector, particularly in the production of fresh produce, with Kent and Medway estimated to produce around 40% of the UK’s fruit and vegetables. Both sectors are identified as priority areas within the Kent and Medway Economic Development Framework and the emerging Local Growth Plan, reflecting their potential to support business growth, productivity, resilience and improved supply chain connectivity across the regional economy. Kent and Medway benefits from a diverse and well-established agri-food sector, comprising a wide network of producers, processors, distributors, intermediaries and institutional stakeholders. This can be understood as a local food cluster, reflecting the concentration of interconnected businesses and organisations operating across the food supply chain. Despite substantial public expenditure on food, there can sometimes be a lack of transparency regarding where this spending goes and what standards are being met. Several systemic challenges impede the realisation of a public sector food procurement system in which health and equity, as well as sustainable and resilient supply chains, are prioritised alongside value for money. At a local level, there is currently limited visibility of how the food system operates in practice, including the relationships between different actors, the extent of coordination across the supply chain, and the barriers that may limit effective engagement, particularly in relation to how procurement processes enable or constrain participation by local businesses. These barriers may include structural, logistical, behavioural and commercial factors, including how procurement decisions are made, how supply chains are structured, the role of intermediaries, cost and affordability considerations, and the practical challenges of creating routes to market that work for both buyers and suppliers. At the same time, there are a number of opportunities and innovations emerging across the UK public food procurement sector to help deliver wider food strategy outcomes. While interventions may appear costly upfront, they can generate longer-term benefits by helping to reduce the burden of environmental degradation, healthcare expenditure and social inequalities, while also fostering local economic growth, improving supply chain resilience and supporting more transparent and effective systems. This creates an opportunity to test practical, place-based approaches that strengthen local supply chains and support greater participation by producers and suppliers within public sector procurement systems. In this context, this pilot seeks to connect local food and drink producers with major institutions such as schools, hospitals and care providers in Kent and Medway. The work will include identifying willing buyers and capable suppliers, supporting collaboration through workshops, matchmaking activity and other targeted engagement designed to build relationships and address practical barriers. The pilot should investigate and support changes to procurement and logistics arrangements so that local businesses can participate more easily in institutional supply chains. Progress should be tracked throughout the pilot, and proportionate educational activities and awareness-raising should help to promote the wider benefits of buying local and strengthening local supply chain collaboration. At the end of the pilot, findings, lessons learned and recommendations for future delivery and scaling up should be made available for sharing. This work is intended to complement, and avoid duplication with, wider strategic and stakeholder-led activity in this area, including national evaluation activity relating to public sector food procurement, while focusing specifically on the delivery of a practical pilot and the generation of locally grounded evidence. This should include consideration of relevant national and local frameworks relating to sustainable food procurement, such as Government Buying Standards and emerging approaches to social value and net zero where applicable. The Council is keen to develop local supply chains within this context and as part of the delivery of the Kent and Medway Economic Development Framework, the Local Growth Plan, the Kent and Medway Integrated Health & Work Strategy and the Council’s Reforming Kent strategic plan. Through this pilot, the Council aims to support a more resilient, productive and effective local food economy in Kent and Medway, while generating practical evidence to inform future delivery and investment. The Council is seeking quotations for the delivery of a pilot project aimed at strengthening the local food economy by improving connections between food and drink producers in Kent and Medway and institutional buyers such as schools, hospitals and care providers. The pilot should focus on practical, place-based activity that is proportionate to the available budget and capable of generating useful evidence to inform future delivery and investment.

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