Measuring the local economic impact of National Health Service procurement in the UK: an evaluation of the Cornwall Food Programme and LM3

Abstract

Local procurement by public bodies is one type of short food supply chain (SFSC), which have been argued to contribute to economic regeneration and local sustainable development. In the current UK policy environment, quantifying actual local economic gains could add much-needed weight to arguments in favour of local procurement in the NHS and other public bodies. To aid such quantification, this paper exemplifies and evaluates the use of a “quick and simple” tool called LM3, designed to measure the local economic benefit of initiatives like SFSCs. LM3 is calculated for the Cornwall Food Programme (CFP), a localised procurement initiative. The findings confirm that the CFP has a considerable impact on the local economy. Notwithstanding this conclusion, difficulties in data collection combined with inaccuracies inherent to the LM3 process created a large margin of error in the findings. Moreover, a qualitative evaluation of the CFP added a valuable understanding of the wider economic impact of the CFP. The use of an even simpler and more reliable “LM2” multiplier tool is recommended for future studies, accompanied by some qualitative evaluation to create a fuller picture of local economic impacts.

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