Manchester Solutions Deputy Chief Executive Drew Thomas said: "Initially we got involved with GM Procure when the idea was originally mooted in about 2003. We were interested in how we could help support local employment and continue to work with contractors to make sure their apprentices are trained appropriately,"
"What GM Procure does is very impressive - to procure on the understanding that your contractors will hire apprentices from those neighbourhoods where the work is carried out. The consortium has looked at the whole issue of procurement and regeneration and considered 'how do we maximise the local benefit?' The result is very successful. There is a symbiotic relationship between what they do and what we do, "
"Looking back over the growth of GM Procure, it is largely as I had expected. The future of the organisation is going to become an interesting challenge especially with the end of the Decent Homes programme. The challenge will be to extract the benefit of procurement when using fewer contracted services, the element that necessarily uses more labour,"