The Construction Playbook recognises that:
■ 'SMEs are experts in their fields and can provide insight into MMC, innovative technologies and ways to minimise the GHG footprint of the proposed solutions across their whole lifecycle' (p.23).
■ 'Social value should be explicitly evaluated in all central government procurement, where the requirements are related and proportionate to the subject-matter of the contract' (p.57).
Review participants include a range of SME contractors, specialists, architects and engineers. They and other participants express concerns that:
■ SME consultants and contractors can be locked out of frameworks where bidding costs and procedures are prohibitive
■ The benefits of local tier 2 and 3 SMEs can be overlooked, even by those framework providers who promote local supply chains in connection with social value
■ Some consultant SMEs only win call-off appointments by agreeing to be sub-consultants to a single source supplier under a framework set up in order to circumvent public procurement regulations.