Social procurement in UK construction projects

Recent developments in the field of social procurement mean that in the future, firms tendering for major construction and infrastructure projects will need to demonstrate that they are not just efficient in project delivery, but also contribute positively to the communities in which they build. The emerging social enterprise sector represents a potentially innovative and sustainable opportunity to meet this new challenge but is poorly understood and grossly under-represented in the construction industry. Through interviews with twelve leaders of successful social enterprises operating in the construction industry, it is concluded that many changes are needed to traditional procurement practices to grasp this opportunity. These include unbundling work packages, reducing tender compliance burdens, changing traditional perceptions of 'value' which revolve around lowest price, incorporating social value requirements into existing subcontracts and challenging the dominant role of supply chain incumbents and ingrained negative stereotypes of the disadvantaged groups which social enterprises employ. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. APM and IPMA. All rights reserved.