The Association of Plumbing & Heating Contractors Ltd. has welcomed the recent findings from a Government Consultation on measures to make public procurement more accessible to small and medium enterprises.

Following the consultation carried out during autumn 2013 the following outcomes have been proposed:

John Thompson, chief executive of APHC, commented: "The Association has been calling for changes to the public sector procurement process for some time. These proposed changes should enable more SMEs to participate in the Local Authority tender process and enable them to win more business. We are also pleased to see that the government is looking at tackling the issue of late payment within these reforms, as this is an ongoing issue which causes unnecessary stress to many of our members. We await further details of these reforms."