MORE needs to be done by the Government to help small businesses win work in the public sector, a cross-party Parliamentary report recommends.

The All-Party Parliamentary Small Business Group (SBG) said that although progress had been made through the recent Glover Report, which recommended numerous changes in procurement processes for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), further changes need to be made.

The group makes 16 recommendations ahead of Wednesday’s Budget to make bidding procedures for contracts to tap into the £175bn of public money available, including for councils to set targets for awarding contracts to SMEs in the surrounding area and for feedback to be provided on unsuccessful bids.

The group’s report comes in support of the Buy North- East campaign, run by The Northern Echo with the North-East Chamber of Commerce (NECC), which encourages councils to award more contracts locally.

Research from the chamber shows that £1.35bn could be generated in the North-East economy, and 6,000 jobs created, if councils contracted an extra one per cent of work regionally each year to 2016.

In the report, the SBG stressed that SMEs, which account for 99.9 per cent of all businesses, need to be supported during the downturn to ensure they prosper.

It said: “They will ultimately continue to serve the entire local and national economy in good times and bad, and clearly contribute to helping the UK survive the recession.

“To that end, the SBG supports the recommendations of the Glover Report and endorses them as a step in the right direction, but there are key areas which are not addressed thoroughly enough.

“This report acts as a complement to the Glover Report, and hopes to fill any gaps.”

In the Glover Report, which was launched after Chancellor Alistair Darling appointed venture capitalist Anne Glover to look at ways of making public procurement simpler for SMEs. Among its recommendations, which were accepted in Mr Darling’s Pre- Budget Report, were to make pre-qualification questionnaires simpler and for more support to be offered in submitting bids.

Ross Smith, head of policy and research at the chamber, said: “This report highlights how difficult it is for small firms to access public sector contracts.

“It is essential that the tendering process is made simpler and more cost-effective to enable smaller firms to access the £175bn of public money available.

“This is even more important in a recession when firms are looking for crucial revenue streams.

“NECC is working with local authorities in the North- East to make reforms which will improve public procurement.

“This report illustrates how important it is that we take this opportunity.”