Pupils, patients and public sector workers to prosper through local food procurement

In March 2026, Defra announced £755,000 in funding for five English local authorities to test and develop approaches to public sector food procurement. The five -Brighton and Hove, Bristol, Cambridge, Bury and Middlesborough - were selected because of their track record in place-based food leadership, demonstrated through SFP Gold or Food for Life Served Here Gold accreditation. Each receives £155,000 to spend in 2026/27. This is what that investment means in practice.

Local innovation shaping national policy

For over a decade, food partnerships across England have been working to understand which levers most effectively shift public sector food procurement towards healthier, fairer and more sustainable outcomes. That body of experience - accumulated through long-term relationships with local authorities, health bodies, schools, caterers and agroecological producers and suppliers - represents exactly the kind of grounded knowledge that national policy needs to draw on.

The Government's ambition that more than half of public sector food procurement spend is directed towards local producers or produce meeting higher environmental standards is bold and welcome. SFP and its members have been ready to inform that agenda, and this funding creates the conditions to do that.

By investing in five places with proven track records and mature food systems thinking, Defra is creating genuine local testing grounds - spaces where policy ambitions can be stress-tested against reality, refined, and made replicable.

Here’s how three of our SFP members reacted to the news:

“We are very pleased to see Cambridge City Council receive this Defra funding. It builds on years of work in Cambridge to connect food, health, climate and local economic priorities through practical partnership working. Through Cambridge Sustainable Food and our wider partnerships and networks, we have helped create the strong foundations needed for stronger local supply chains and more joined up action across the city.

Our Sustainable Food Places Gold award reflects that shared effort. This funding is a real opportunity to take the next step and show what can happen when place-based partnership working and national policy come together.”

Sam Dyer MBE, Cambridge Sustainable Food CIC

“National policy makers, campaigners, academics all agree that local food procurement is key to making our food system healthier, fairer, and more resilient for everyone. And yet public sector food procurement has proved a hard nut to crack.

Whilst across the UK, excellent practice exists, it remains scattered, reliant on individuals rather than embedded systems and national policy has lacked the clear targets that can drive lasting change.

This is why we welcome this announcement from Defra that 5 towns and cities (existing leaders in place-based food work) are being funded to pilot transformative public sector food purchasing practices. This is national / local partnership work at its best - testing how strategy meets reality.

Brighton & Hove Food Partnership bring 20 years’ experience of working with our public institutions to encourage them to buy more food from sources that support our community, protect the environment, and keep money circulating in the local economy. We look forward to working with Defra and the other places to develop blueprints that show how we can achieve the Government’s ambitions for at least half of public sector food to come from local producers or suppliers certified to higher environmental standards.”

Vic Borrill, CEO, Brighton and Hove Food Partnership

“As coordinators of the Bristol Good Food 2030 Partnership, we are delighted that Defra is providing this funding to Bristol to strengthen our city's work on local, sustainable food procurement. The Bristol Good Food Procurement Action Plan - developed by partners across the public, private and third sectors - sets out clear ambitions to grow local, sustainable supply chains within the city's public procurement over the next two years. This funding gives us a great chance to build momentum, both here in Bristol and alongside other local authorities, and to play our part in the wider national ambition to see at least half of public sector food coming from local producers or suppliers meeting higher environmental standards.”

Heloise Balme, General Manager, Bristol Food Network

Bury has a Silver SFP Award-holding food partnership which is well integrated in (and funded by) the local authority. Food is a strategic priority for Bury, who understand its value as a driver of health, community wealth creation and human and environmental wellbeing. Through Bury Catering, the council has been among the leading practitioners in healthy & sustainable school food procurement in the UK, achieving Food for Life Served Here Gold accreditation for menus served to thousands of pupils across 56 schools -- prioritising local, organic produce at scale and demonstrating that high standards are achievable within public sector budgets.

What comes next?

SFP will work closely with Defra and all five places throughout 2026/27, drawing out learning that can inform practice across the wider network.