Policies and terms for our suppliers

We continue to deliver long term infrastructure and social improvements and we would like to share our strategic themes with you:

1. Deliver, to a high level of consistency, a series of customer offerings suited to individual products and services;
2. Grow the number of social outcomes that we are able to deliver;
3. Develop better and more integrated services and products that match the needs of a changing society and economic context. These should be supported by a clear methodology to prioritise financial resources and measure the social impact they have.

We recognise that political change affects the social/economic environment in which we operate. One of our strategic business objectives is to achieve significant improvements in the cost of delivery and we aim to work more closely with our suppliers to ensure we can deliver these goals together.

In support of this we have a number of policies (please see below), which all our suppliers are expected to commit to.

Metropolitan Thames Valley Terms and Conditions
Ensuring we are clear as to the contractual terms that govern our relationship.

Purchase Order Process

One of our strategic business objectives is to achieve significant value improvements in the cost of delivery and we aim to work more closely with our suppliers to ensure we can deliver these goals together. In January 2020 we unified our purchase order and payments systems and established a single, central Payables team.

In support of this improvement we have a number of policies (please see below), which we would like all our suppliers to commit to.

1. No Purchase Order, No Pay Policy

This policy requires suppliers to make reference to a valid Purchase Order/Works Order number on their invoices. Any invoice that does not quote a valid purchase order or works number will not be paid. We recommend that you do not provide any goods or services without being issued with a Purchase Order/Works Order number beforehand.

All purchase order invoices should be forwarded to:
AP.invoice@metropolitan.org.uk

All works order invoices should be forwarded to;
CommercialTeamInvoices@metropolitan.org.uk.

The No Purchase Order, No Pay Policy offers significant benefits to suppliers as well as to MTVH. All invoices are delivered to a central location and therefore there is one point of contact for any queries. Any queries and questions should be sent to the email address accountspayable@metropolitan.org.uk.

• There will be fewer payment delays as departments within MTVH won’t have to raise a purchase order retrospectively;
• With the PO being raised before the invoice is received budget holders will have a clearer understanding of the committed spend against available budget.

2. No price Increase Policy

Unless there is a contractual commitment to increase prices then MTVH will not accept any price increases in the financial year 2020/21. The only exception to this is where the increase has been agreed with the Director of Procurement. We wish to work with suppliers who are committed to supporting us in meeting our objective of reducing the cost of delivery, while maintaining and improving levels of service.

In line with MTVH, our suppliers must balance their own inflationary and cost pressures with internal efficiency improvements such that these pressures are not passed through to ourselves.

We would also like to invite you to offer suggestions on how we can further reduce the cost of delivery through efficiency improvements and innovative approaches to our activities.

Any such suggestions, or any queries in relation to this communication, should be forwarded to the Procurement Support team at procurementsupport@MTVH.co.uk.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

MTVH will ensure that all contractors, consultants, partners and suppliers are aware of the importance of diversity and inclusion to us, and will be required to provide a copy of their Diversity Policy and to demonstrate how they comply with that policy.  We will help them to understand the diverse needs of our customers in order that they are better equipped to provide an efficient service to our customers and service users.