Local Buy supports local business with $74.7 million spend this year
Published on 11 December 2018
Businesses around CQ have been revealed as the big winner of Rockhampton Regional Council’s Local Buy policy with a report to Council today revealing almost $270 million has been spent in the local economy over the past four years.
Rockhampton Region Mayor Margaret Strelow said the figures demonstrated Council’s continued commitment to supporting the region’s economy.
“In the 12 months to the end of October this year, Council spent $74.7 million locally on goods and services out of a total of $101 million, which is about 74 per cent,” Mayor Strelow said.
“This number is testament to our commitment to buy locally as much as we can and the only reason the number isn’t higher is because of the specialist nature of some projects which requires items from outside the region – think the Airport Pavement Project, Kershaw Gardens Play Equipment and the synthetic hockey surface.
“However, where we can, we stay local. For example when it comes to road marking materials, plant and equipment, and trade services, we have kept our spend at 96% of that budget for three years straight – this year it was $21.6 million from a total of $22.5 million.
“On top of that, we also spent an additional $1.4m with local Council areas surrounding our boundaries, so when we can’t do it within our own area we are still aiming to keep the money in Central Queensland.
““We said we’d commit to local businesses and help nurture and grow our Region’s economy, and we’ll continue to do so wherever possible,” Mayor Strelow said.
The Local Preference Policy gives local business a 12 per cent weighting for projects under $1 million and 5 per cent weighting for greater than $1 million.
For projects over $150,000, tenderers who nominate local suppliers and sub-contractors for goods and services for use in the project to a minimum value of 30% of the tendered sum also receive a weighting of 10 per cent.
The policy is available on Council’s website here.
Click here for information on how to do business with Council and to download the Supplier's Guide.