THE amount of money Inverclyde Council spends with local businesses has increased to almost £25 million in the last year.
The authority spent just over £24.5million on goods, services and works directly with local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) during 2025/26, a rise of nearly £3.5million on the previous 12-month total.
The figure represented a fifth of the council’s overall procurement spend.
Councillor Jim Clocherty, who is Inverclyde Council’s vice-convener of environment and regeneration, said: “We recognise the importance of supporting the local economy and we have a wealth of quality providers, traders, contractors, and charitable organisations on our doorstep so it makes sense to utilise them.
“In doing so, we are supporting local jobs and improving our environmental impact by reducing delivery and travel distances, as well as delivering best-value for taxpayers’ money.
“It’s important that in these challenging financial times that we all do what we can to ‘shop local’ and support local businesses.”
The council’s annual procurement report also highlighted how council contracts led to 156 community benefits, including creating 14 jobs for unemployed people, three modern apprenticeships, and two graduate posts.
The community benefits total is a substantial increase on the 46 delivered in 2024/25, largely because of the launch of a website delivered through the Glasgow City Region which provides a one-stop shop for groups to request work or materials and for contractors to lend a hand.
