Supply chain spending

Supply chain spending (also called local supply chain spend or procurement spend) refers to the money an organisation pays to its suppliers, specifically those based in the local area, for goods, works, and services needed to deliver a project or contract, or for general organisational management. 

What Counts as Supply Chain Spend? 

These are the payments a business makes to other firms as part of producing its output, for example: 

  • Materials and components: raw inputs bought from local suppliers 
  • Subcontracted services e.g. hiring a local groundworks firm on a construction project 
  • Energy, utilities, and equipment sourced locally 
  • Professional services e.g. local legal, accounting, HR, or logistics firms 
EC1

Supply chain spending

Economy

Key Value

An economic value of per £1 spent across different types of supplier in a localised area x Local Economic Multiplier

A record of £1 spent with local suppliers by type, and an estimated £X of additional GVA based on location generated in the local economy.

Where does this headline value come from? 

The headline value comes from the multiplier which is specifically designed to estimate the additional local GVA generated when money circulates within the local supply chain (HM Treasury, 2022). When a business procures locally: 

  • The local supplier receives income 
  • That supplier pays local wages and buys from other local firms 
  • Those workers and firms spend locally, and so on 

This circulation is what the multiplier captures. Spend that leaves the area (imports, external suppliers) is accounted for via the leakage rate (default 20% in the tool), which reduces the multiplier accordingly (HCA, 2014). 

Local Economic Multiplier
▸ This MeasureUp value is to generate a Local Economic Multiplier to calculate additional local GVA generated by the local supply chain spending.
▸ It combines sector-specific and regional economic evidence to produce a single multiplier that, when applied to local supply chain spend, estimates the additional GVA generated through local supply-chain effects.
▸ All inputs are sourced from official ONS data and can be adjusted to reflect local circumstances. 

 

MeasureUp have developed a Local Economic Multiplier tool to support users with using this value.  This is available HERE and is most useful for Silver level measurement and valuation.

Bronze

Effort

Accuracy

Monetised value:

In bronze level, count only the local spending. 

Silver

Effort

Accuracy

Monetised value:

For every £1 spent with suppliers based in Local Area and industry, an estimated £[X] of additional local GVA is generated, based on confirmed procurement spend and a locally calibrated multiplier.  

Gold

Effort

Accuracy

Monetised value:

At Gold level you are looking to build on your silver estimations by engaging directly with your supply chain to inform your understanding of economic impact. 

Gold+

Effort

Accuracy

Monetised value:

At the Gold+ level, you are building on your Gold value calculation by assessing the value against the counterfactual, or ‘what would have happened anyway’.   

 

 

Value Type: Activity What's this?
UN SDG Categories:
  • 8. Decent Work and Economic Growth
  • 10 Reduced Inequalities
  • 12. Responsible Consumption and Production
  • 17. Partnerships to achieve the Goal
What's this?
2020 Social Value Models:
    • MAC 1.3 Supporting organisations and business to recover
    • MAC 3.1 Diverse supply chains
    • Policy Outcome 1: Help local communities to manage and recover from the impact of COVID-19
    • Policy Outcome 3: Increase supply chain resilience and capacity
    • Theme 1: Covid-19 Recovery
    • Theme 2: Tackling Economic Inequality
What's this?
2025 Social Value Models:
    • 3a. Create a diverse supply chain
    • Mission 1: Kick start economic growth
    • Outcome 3: Resilient, innovative and flexible supply chains
What's this?

Evidence

Measure Up focuses on empowering you to numerically measure the impact you’re having. We recommend that numeric reports are backed up with stories and other types of evidence to help illustrate, in human terms, the impact that’s being made on individuals.

We recommend seeing consent from one or more participants in your intervention to collect and tell their story. This should include a little background on the participant, a summing up of life before the intervention, the human impact of the intervention, and the longer term (if known) impact on the person’s life outside of, and after, the intervention.

Providing photographs, audio recordings, video interviews or even artefacts from the intervention (for example, writing, paintings, music, etc from creative interventions) can add more colour, and convey the emotional impact of interventions more directly.

In some cases it’s appropriate to anonymise or abbreviate the personal information of case study participants. No story should be published or shared without the recorded consent of the individual(s) it concerns. Individuals continue to own the rights to their stories and if they request you stop sharing the story or making it available online you should do so promptly and without need for justification.

More help

We want to empower anyone to perform and improve their impact measurement – without needing a degree in economics.

If you need any more help, or just someone to do the legwork for you we can help signpost you to software, training and consultancy to help you get to grips with the impact you’re having.

Data Sources