A new National Procurement Policy statement
Think tank: Re:State
Author(s): Joe Hill
September 28, 2026
This report from UK think tank Re:State proposes changing the rules for public procurement for the public sector with a new National Procurement Policy Statement.
Every year the State spends nearly £400 billion buying goods, services and works from the private sector – 35 per cent of public sector budgets, and roughly one eighth of UK GDP. Politicians have tended to see this as an opportunity to leverage procurement spending for other goals: Andy Burnham has promised “proper social value weighting” on public contracts, while Chancellor John Healey has vowed to buy British “on a scale never seen before”.
But just as the scale of spending makes it seem like a great opportunity, it is also a risk. Wanting British firms to win more public work is a reasonable goal. But mandates are the wrong way to get there. Every requirement added to a tender is a cost the supplier builds into its price and charges back to the taxpayer, and this cost falls hardest on the small and new firms – often stopping them joining the procurement market altogether.
Our 2025 paper Procure and simple showed how piling wider objectives onto procurement has shifted its focus away from its core purpose of buying what the public sector needs at the best value for money. The current Government has introduced Procurement Policy Note 026. It removes social value requirements from contracts under £1 million, but doubles their weight – from 10 to 20 per cent of the evaluation – on contracts worth £5 million or more, where most public money is spent. Exacerbating the problem on the largest and most expensive contracts.
Today Re:State has published A New National Procurement Policy Statement, part of our ‘Plan for Government’ series: a full draft to replace the statement every contracting authority must have regard to under the Procurement Act 2023. Bids would be judged on quality and price alone. New Smart Awards would let authorities buy innovative products directly, with break clauses and payment at risk to limit the downside, and a ‘growth preference’ to target more spending on start-ups and scale ups.
None of this needs a new Act. Ministers can replace the current NPPS directly with this draft, changing the rules for public procurement for the whole public sector for the better.
