Plans to make it simpler and easier for smaller businesses in Kirklees to bid for and win work across the public sector have been unveiled.

Small and medium-sized enterprises make up 99.9% of the UK’s 4.5m businesses. Now the Government has launched a consultation following recommendations by Lord Young, the Prime Minister’s enterprise adviser, to create a SME-friendly “single market” for public procurement.

Suppliers who want to do business with the public sector will be able to expect all organisations to follow a single set of principles when buying goods and services. The proposals will simplify and standardise how public contracts are advertised, bid for and paid for across the public sector.

Cabinet Office Minister Chloë Smith has also written to all MPs in Yorkshire asking them to make sure that local authorities are doing everything possible to support SMEs – and publish their contract opportunities on the Government’s Contracts Finder website.

She said: “With £230bn per year spent on goods and services right across the whole public sector, Government wants to seize the opportunity to help hard-working SMEs get on by competing for and winning this business.”

SMEs have been shut out of government business, she said. In the past bidding for public sector contracts was time-consuming, expensive and overly bureaucratic.

“Removing barriers and setting out a consistent, single set of SME-friendly principles for the whole public sector will provide the right support to encourage significant business and growth opportunities for SMEs, and help give the UK a better starting position in the global race.”

The consultation proposals include introducing a requirement for all public sector contracts over £10,000 to be accessible on the same site; banning burdensome pre-qualification questionnaires for low value public sector contracts and introducing a single standardised requirement for high value contracts.

They also include ensuring suppliers further down the supply chain benefit from the same standard payment terms that public bodies offer prime contractors to ensure prompt payment for public sector work.