As we continue to emerge from the disruption of the pandemic, LGP is enjoying being back working face-to-face with council and our suppliers.
In the absence of a Business Development Manager in the Southern Region (announcement coming soon) I have had the pleasure over past five weeks meeting with and visiting 20 different councils, ROCs and JOs. Council operations are returning.
Some of the key themes from my visitations have included; challenge with engaging and buying from local suppliers, inability to find staff with the volume of people moving to new roles, trying to understand and plan the council strategy that meets the new Modern Slavery Circular (22-09 Councils’ obligations under the Modern Slavery Act 2018), and finally trying to navigate an ever-changing energy market in the pursuit of renewable energy.
Thankfully LGP has strategies available to address these issues. However, whilst we (hopefully) leave behind the pandemic, our sector still has its fair share of challenges to overcome. The energy space is very challenging for councils. Prices have increased considerably impacting what is already a significant expenditure item. In recent weeks we have seen providers entering and leaving the market, with the overarching industry push to renewable energy sources.
We have one contract established and we have another testing the market as we speak. If you have some uncertainty with your future energy supply, please let me know and we can see if we can help.
To the new modern slavery circular, we have been sharing the various tools and information to help set a plan for what you might be asked to write into your councils FY23 Annual Report.
Some other contract news includes the finalisation of our Electric Vehicle and Fleet Contracts. Two brand new spaces for LGP, which we are excited about launching in the second half of this year. Our innovative Microsoft Licencing go-to-market strategy continues on as we look to achieve considerable savings for those councils who have signed on with their commitment.
In the previous 3yrs LGP has safely and responsibly managed in excess of $2b in council spend. This year our contract spend is moving back to pre-pandemic levels, seeing $4b in spend over the past 5 years.
The contributors to this return are our Major & Minor Works Contract, which is new for this financial year, it is exceeding expectations and projected to have managed over $36m by the end of this month. Our roads contract will have aggregated $170m, human resources will be $77m, traffic management will be $64m.
None of this activity would be possible without the ongoing, and growing support from our councils and our contracted suppliers – to all of whom we remain very grateful.
Speaking of the 2022 Financial Year coming to an end, if councils have budget they need to spend quickly and need support, we can help. Please reach out to your Business Development Manager. This might also be an opportunity for those who have not done so already, to partition funds to attend our Annual Conference in October. If you need some further detail to assist, please send an email to [email protected].
We had an amazing turnout for our first Network Meeting in Mudgee last month. It was so good to see people meeting up face-to-face for the first time in a while. For people new to council, they were starting to build a local network of contacts they can work with into the future.
The next LGP Network Meeting is the 28th of July in Canberra. Registrations are open for all our 2022 events including the 2022 Annual Conference in October.