ABSTRACT
Formal tendering for 'white collar' professional services has become particularly associated with compulsory competitive tendering in local government, brought in by the Local Government Acts of 1988 and 1992. Public sector organisations are major occupiers of property and some new style contracts were not only large in terms of value, but combine work covering several disciplines not commonly offered by many individual surveying firms. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, central government was not only enacting legislation to introduce competitive tendering into local government, but was bringing about major changes in the way its own property is managed. Property consultants interviewed for the research recognised the importance of the 'client role' and expressed greater job satisfaction working for a client who was strong, challenging and adequately resourced. Public and private sector professionals and managers were generally uneasy about the possible effects of compulsion in relation to the tendering of property services by local authorities.
