Business with Councils - Contracts

ghostrun

Having already owned and sold a successful catering business I am looking at something new to start. I'm always horrified of Fly Tipping and have some ideas to help prevent this, working with councils. In theory it would reduce offending by a fairly high margin.

I have worked with councils in the past but this is a totally different business. I am clueless on how to approach them with this or sell them my idea. They have set contracts which I receive by email  related to my last business, so not too unfamiliar with those. My idea does not fall under the general contracts they offer so any advice would be appreciated.

Bookworm105

what is your question?
get a solicitor to draft your contract and then offer it to the council to see if they will bite

ask a solicitor to review a (default) council contract and advise you on its suitability to your use 

DullGreyGuy

ghostrun said:

Having already owned and sold a successful catering business I am looking at something new to start. I'm always horrified of Fly Tipping and have some ideas to help prevent this, working with councils. In theory it would reduce offending by a fairly high margin.

I have worked with councils in the past but this is a totally different business. I am clueless on how to approach them with this or sell them my idea. They have set contracts which I receive by email  related to my last business, so not too unfamiliar with those. My idea does not fall under the general contracts they offer so any advice would be appreciated.

Having worked with some intellectual property lawyers, it's very difficult. The vagueness of your post makes it hard to have any idea if you are talking about a novel piece of tech or a not so novel suggestion that has been done to death and failed. At the same time we cannot ask you to divulge your idea as if it is something groundbreaking publishing it on a public forum whilst its unprotected could be a terrible idea. 

Do you have strong relationships with the procurement managers with any of your former contracts? It's not clear if you were one of 500 on a PSL list or a significant provider and the first one they called. If the idea is easily replicated then it would be a risk discussing it with anyone but maybe the procurement guy would give an introduction with their colleague who works in this area?

ghostrun

Firstly thank you for your response it is most appreciated. No my idea is not rocket science and probably nothing new to what is already offered today with the exception of some clever marketing. Apologies for being so vague just as a precaution being on a public forum as you have mentioned. I am needing a better understanding on how Councils work in this area, I do have contacts with procurement managers but have already exhausted that with previous questions on another matter.    

Regarding a solicitor who will draw up a contract, thank you for that I have taken note.
At this early stage I do not wish to spend any money until I know this could be viable, my only other obvious option is to talk to them directly and see what comes of it. I wanted to avoid this so I wouldn't come over as clueless which I am. I want to sell them the idea which could save them money if they like it are they obliged to offer it out in Procurement? 

Maybe offer to do a pilot project?

DullGreyGuy

ghostrun said:
Regarding a solicitor who will draw up a contract, thank you for that I have taken note. 

At this early stage I do not wish to spend any money until I know this could be viable, my only other obvious option is to talk to them directly and see what comes of it. I wanted to avoid this so I wouldn't come over as clueless which I am. I want to sell them the idea which could save them money if they like it are they obliged to offer it out in Procurement? 

Maybe offer to do a pilot project?

Have you looked at the likes of https://www.local.gov.uk/our-support/procurement-hub/how-do-business-local-government-selling-councils. Ultimately each council comes up with their own methods but they have to abide by the same overarching rules and so the association can be a reasonable resource in finding those out. 

A lot depends on what the idea is... if it's simple could they do the pilot and then decide to just do it themselves without your assistance? With the limited details it doesn't instantly feel like an idea you could protect significantly but what your charges are -v- what it would cost them to do it themselves can also be a consideration. 

My understanding is that not all contracts have to go through a commercial tender but as the value goes up the more likely it will go to tender. 

ghostrun

It would involve some specialist equipment which the council could obtain, but as with everything how efficient, cost effective are they going to be. From what I have seen they do tend to bring in contractors and not always the whole project. I think what I am asking for will be found out talking direct, your link selling to councils is helpful thank you for that. Cost limit of the potential tender is interesting thank you for pointing that out. 

Grumpy_chap

I am not sure that the OP needs a Solicitor to prepare a draft contract because the contract will be on whatever terms the Council insist upon.  The only option the OP will have is for a Solicitor to review the contract and alert any clauses that pass undue risk to the OP.

Working with UK Government (at any level) seems to require excessive levels of insurance and excessive levels of Governance paperwork to be completed for any task.  It forces the costs up and then a small company cannot complete with the multi-nationals.

I am also wary of pursuing Local Authority work based upon too many fingers burnt.  I have had tenders where I pass through a pre-qualification process, then several levels of tender development, but at the fourth round get rejected for rather spurious reasons.  I think the last, after which I decided to focus efforts elsewhere, was a statement that "it is the policy of this Authority not to award contracts to any organisation with lower than £50m annual turnover in any of the past three years."  That is a perfectly viable position for the Authority to take, but not to introduce at the fourth round of a tender process after which expense has been invested by the tenderers given that turnover had to be stated at the very first pre-qualification stage.

ghostrun

This why I am making these enquiries now, the hoops you have to go through, is it worth it at the end of the day? Nothing to show in turnover, they will look at risks working with a new business. I would have to go in working with minimum fees to avoid procurement. It's a headache before I have even started.