The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) said that its members are "genuinely concerned" about many aspects of the Stage 1 Debate on the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Bill, including the limits below EU thresholds for contracts, where public procurement processes will now apply.

Susan Torrance, SFHA Policy Manager, said: "Our members are genuinely very concerned about the implications of the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Bill. They are committed to making the best use of resources, whether public or private, and use of good procurement practices is one way of making efficiencies and savings.

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"However, every housing association is different and with members ranging from owning 20 units up to the largest with 48,000 units, clearly a one size fits all approach does not seem sensible."

Ms Torrance continued: "We need our members, many of which are deeply committed to investing in their local economies and giving significant expenditure to local small and medium enterprises wherever possible, to be able to make sensible business decisions for the size and scale of what they do. Classifying housing associations as public contracting authorities, such as NHS Trusts and local authorities with budgets in the many tens of millions is not sensible. Together with the three other UK housing federations we are currently challenging European law which designates us as public contracting authorities, despite the fact that for many other purposes, such as the VAT regime, we are not."

(CD/MH)