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Local Government Third-Party Spend 2022 Almanac

  • 4th Jul 2022

Executive Summary

EY and Oxygen Finance, in collaboration, are delighted to be supporting another annual production of a Local Authority spend Almanac that brings together a view of expenditure across Local Government in England. For the last two years, the release of the inaugural Almanac helped raise awareness of how councils in England use their resources with third parties. This opened discussions around how the sector can continue to collaborate together, and with other partners, to get the best possible value from external spend and demonstrate the positive impact effective procurement can have on communities. This 2022 Almanac also now provides additional insights on the estimated carbon emissions of local authorities generated through their supply chains.

Local Government across England collectively reports spend over £70bn with suppliers in 2021 to deliver services to communities. From contracts with care-home providers through to IT companies, this expenditure is essential to delivering the outcomes we all need.

The Local Government Transparency Code 2015 sets out the minimum requirement for Local Authorities to publish open data, including spend data. It ensures that data about how money is spent is publicly accessible and all expenditure exceeding £500 must be published. This creates a wealth of information and helps with understanding national trends and variations in how Local Authorities spend their resources with third parties. Oxygen Finance has developed an Illuminator tool that aggregates and categorises actual invoice data disclosed by all Local Authorities in England. EY works directly with many Local Authorities to support them to drive value and efficiency from their third-party spend.

This Almanac covers spend between calendar years 2019 to 2021 and includes a view of:

► Overall third-party expenditure across English Local Authorities.

► Category and council-type expenditure.

► Supplier expenditure trends.

► Carbon emissions analysis.

EY and Oxygen Finance encourage you to use this Almanac to compare and contrast your spend, and apply learnings to support collaboration.

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