Are councils doing all they can to help SME transport consultancies thrive?

David Young, SCP

03 March 2017

David Young is a director of transport planning and infrastructure design consultancy SCP, leading the transport planning team based in Yorkshire and nationally the public transport and public sector work. Previously he was a director at South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive. Email: david.young@scptransport.co.uk

Of course we all appreciate that local authorities are struggling with revenue resources due to austerity. I should know, having previously led a public sector organisation whose budget was cut by 35% and staff reduced by over 50%. This means that fewer people have to work smarter and harder, but great care needs to be taken to ensure that the efficiency drive does not have perverse or unintended local consequences.

Take procurement as an example. An obvious way of reducing procurement costs is...