Council first to sign up to ‘Buy Social’

The toolkit, developed by The Strategic Investment Board, aims to provide organisations with procurement responsibilities with assistance on how they can help generate real benefits to society and the local economy through their contracts.

Expressing the council’s commitment to the initiative, Mayor Thomas Hogg said: “I welcome the council’s introduction of the ‘Buy Social’ toolkit and am delighted that we have decided to support this initiative and include social clauses into contracts when possible. This will help us as an organisation deliver real benefits to our local community and help us achieve both value for money and social benefits through early and effective inclusion of social considerations in project development. This will encourage jobs and investment and make this borough a more prosperous place.

“Where applicable, the inclusion of social clauses in contracts requires us as purchasers and all of our suppliers, to protect the vulnerable, support the disadvantaged, develop the social economy, protect the environment and benefit the local community.”

Mary McKee, Strategic Advisor (Social Regeneration), for The Strategic Investment Board added: “Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council is the first Council to commit to ‘Buy Social’ and we hope they lead the way for other council’s to come on board.”