Council spends big on local businesses

Local businesses have benefited from more than $270 million in Townsville City Council expenditure over the last 6 months.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, almost 82% of Council’s procurement spend has been on small, medium, and large local businesses.

Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill said Council has a significant role to play in supporting businesses that may have otherwise struggled during the global pandemic.

“From the beginning of the pandemic, Council has been committed to doing what we can to support local businesses,” Cr Hill said.

“In the past 6 months we’ve spent over $270 million on local suppliers and service providers, which has kept that money in the Townsville economy.

“That money means businesses have been able to keep staff on and keep work going when they may have otherwise had to shut as a result of the pandemic.”

Business Services and Finance Committee chairperson Kurt Rehbein said local procurement was an important consideration for Council when assessing tenders or looking for suppliers.

“Council has a commitment to spend locally wherever possible and we have been able to do it in a significant majority of cases over the past 6 months,” Cr Rehbein said.

“We have spent more than $180 million on procurement from small to medium sized businesses – these are often your mum and dad businesses that rely on community support to survive.

“We consider local businesses to be those that have their head offices based in Townsville or have a branch in Townsville that has 10 or more full time employees so we can ensure that our community is really benefiting from this investment.”