The Government can set a Food Strategy but delivery of it will largely come from local commitment and action. Local government can, and should, be at the centre of any thinking about creating fairer and more sustainable food systems.
Local authorities influence food through planning, public health, education, housing and regeneration – but also through what they buy every day for schools, care homes, leisure centres and staff catering. Public food procurement is one of the most powerful tools local government has to reshape the food system, support local businesses and underpin the work of community food groups. When councils spend differently on food, they create the demand, markets and stability that make healthier, plant‑rich and more local food chains possible. This brings together private sector and local government is a positive way that can support business growth and local economies. It can also bring farmers into the centre of the system offering direct support and community connection into the reality of food production.
Reports on local food supply chains show that when councils consciously use their “purchasing power”, they can reduce food miles, boost local jobs and improve diet quality at the same time. Already some forward‑thinking authorities are now adopting sustainable food procurement policies that explicitly promote healthy and climate‑friendly diets, with commitments to local, ethical and agroecological sourcing. For example, some councils require all food contracts above a threshold to meet recognised health and sustainability standards, and to work towards accreditation schemes such as Food for Life Served Here.
There is growing evidence that smarter procurement can increase local sourcing without raising costs. Bury Council, for instance, used a dynamic purchasing system to award around £5.6 million of school catering contracts to small, local food providers, maintaining quality meals and supporting economic growth in the borough. London‑focused work on food purchasing has similarly shown that modern procurement tools can open up school food contracts to smaller producers while saving money and shortening supply chains.
When procurement policies are designed with social value and local resilience in mind, they can also create a supportive ecosystem for community food groups rather than leaving them at the margins. National guidance on social value in procurement now encourages public bodies to consider community benefits, local economic growth and environmental impacts, not just lowest price. This shift – reinforced by the Procurement Act and Social Value Model initially introduced via the Procurement Act in 2023 – opens space for councils to favour bids that partner with community organisations, support inclusive employment, or improve local diets. This can all be done with economic prosperity in mind as well as health outcomes and less long-term public expenditure on NHS intervention. Case studies of councils that have used dynamic purchasing systems or innovative contracts demonstrate that when procurement officers, economic development teams and community organisations plan together, it is possible to grow local markets, reduce inequalities and build resilience at the same time.
In practical terms, councils can:
- Write tender criteria that reward bidders who work with local growers, co‑ops and community kitchens.
- Break large contracts into smaller lots or use dynamic purchasing so that social enterprises and SMEs – including community‑rooted food organisations – can realistically participate.
- Commission community food groups to deliver parts of public food services: for example, cookery courses, community meals, or elements of school and holiday‑time provision.
Community food groups can play a complementary role to wider policy ambitions: they help residents make sense of these changes, providing skills, recipes and social support to cook differently at home. Made in Hackney’s community cookery school, for instance, shows how councils could link procurement‑driven menu shifts in schools or day centres to free or low‑cost community classes that celebrate plant‑rich, culturally diverse food. This closes the loop between what the public sector buys and what people feel confident and excited to cook and eat.
Community food groups also play a key role in delivering nutritious, high-quality food to more deprived families and working with the local authority to ensure that food system change is not just for a certain demographic leaving others behind with the worst of the old system. Giving projects like Made in Hackney and landlord‑backed programmes such as Cook for Change a route into long‑term, service‑delivery income, complementing grants and donations means they can become contracted partners in delivering health, climate and inclusion outcomes for the council.
In this model of local change, local government leads through strategy and procurement; local businesses and farmers respond to new, stable demand; and community food groups ensure that the benefits reach residents in ways that are dignified, culturally appropriate and bottom‑up. Public food procurement becomes not just an administrative process, but a central instrument for building a fairer, greener, more local food system.
The national government needs to recognise the central role local government play and set out a clear policy pathway for them to adopt. A few examples of how this could be done include:
- Embedding food in local statutory duties or frameworks (for health, climate, economic development) so councils have a firm basis to act rather than relying on ad‑hoc projects.
- Creating multi‑year funding streams for local food system transformation that can be used flexibly for infrastructure (markets, community kitchens, food hubs), coordination posts and innovation.
- Aligning national grants (health, climate, agriculture) with food outcomes,and require/encourage integrated local food plans as a condition of funding.
- Back a food partnership or food policy forum in every local authority area, bringing together councils, health services, community groups, farmers and businesses to co‑design strategy.
We need to be bold and innovative to drive change but most of all it needs to be translated down to communities and to be more than a strategy on a website. Local government is overburdened yes but bringing in community and private business will help take the work forward and break it literally into bite sized manageable chunks.
