The council’s Procurement Strategy for 2018-23 promises hundreds of millions of pounds worth of work for local firms.

City Council Deputy Leader, Councillor Graham Chapman, said: “We want to support small and medium size firms which are the lifeblood of the local economy.

“We have more scope to do this than councils which have been outsourcing the provision of services wholesale to a single giant supplier.

“As the collapse of Carillion has shown, there are huge risks to this approach.”

The new Procurement Strategy will give smaller businesses more chance competing with larger rivals by breaking down bigger contracts into smaller ones where possible.