Local government sales through G-Cloud nose-dived in May, down almost a third on the April total, according to new figures.
According to the latest figures from the Cabinet Office Digital Marketplace team, during the month, £1.72m of purchases were made by organisations in the local government category, compared to £2.53m the previous month.
In recent months, local government sales have been erratic, with a drop of almost two thirds between December and January followed by a jump of 28% in March.
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May saw 209 G-Cloud purchases made by local authorities, a category that also includes housing associations and London mayoral quango Transport for London.
As with April’s figures, the biggest local government item was £325,000 spent by Hampshire County Council on services provided by consultancy Deloitte. The Cabinet Office data does not specify what the payment covers.
London Borough of Hounslow made the most separate purchases by an individual authority, making 32 payments totalling £76,600.
Across all public bodies, spending through G-Cloud rose by £50m last month to reach a cumulative total of £639.3m since the framework’s launch in 2012.
The figures show that 80% of all purchases by value were made by central government.
The fall in local government spending through G-Cloud comes despite a series of regional events held by the Digital Marketplace over recent months aimed at educating buyers and suppliers.
According to a blog posting by the team yesterday, an event for buyers in Liverpool saw 85% of attendees rating the session as “very good” or “excellent”, with 95% saying they felt encouraged to use the Digital Marketplace or other Crown Commercial Service frameworks.
Of those who came to the Liverpool event, 85% rated the session as ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’ and 95% said they left feeling encouraged to use the Digital Marketplace or CCS frameworks.
More buyer and supplier events are being held in London, Bristol, Cambridge, Leeds, Newcastle, Birmingham and Manchester between 13 August and 3 September.
