Free Guide: Bedford Spending & Supplier Profile
A free spending & supplier guide for Bedford Borough Council · Unitary authority · East of England
Data covering 2010 to 2026
Recorded Spend
£781.4m
Transactions
131,276
Suppliers
2,013
Key Takeaways
- £781 million in recorded spend across 131,276 transactions from 2010 to 2026
- 2,013 identified suppliers with an unconcentrated HHI of 275, spreading spend widely
- Construction and health/social care together account for 45% of matched spend
How big a buyer is Bedford Borough Council?
Bedford is a unitary authority covering 183.8 square miles in the East of England, serving around 175,000 residents. Our dataset holds £781 million in recorded spend across 131,276 transactions, drawn from 63 source files and spanning 2010 to 2026. That is a solid volume of purchasing activity for a council of this size. We have tracked 134 published contracts worth a combined £2.6 million, alongside 179 tenders valued at £305 million. The transaction data paints a fuller picture here than the contract register alone. Spend per head works out at roughly £4,470 across the full dataset period, though that covers up to 16 years of records. The data is collected from bedford.gov.uk, Find a Tender, and web archive sources, with the latest collection from December 2025. If you are scoping Bedford as a target authority, the depth of transaction-level data gives you plenty to work with.
Construction and care dominate, but the supplier base is wide open
Across the 2,150 matched suppliers in our records, Bedford's spend is spread unusually thin. An HHI of 275 puts this firmly in unconcentrated territory, and the top five suppliers account for just 30.1% of matched spend. Willmott Dixon leads at £31.7 million, followed by Comensura at £16.1 million and Wates Construction at £14.2 million. Construction takes the largest sector share at 23.6% of matched spend (£61.8 million from 93 identified suppliers), while health and social work runs close behind at 21.5% (£56.4 million across 278 suppliers). Education sits third at 10.5%, with professional services just behind at 10.1%. What stands out is the supplier count in health and social care. Having 278 identified suppliers in a single sector points to a fragmented market with lots of smaller providers. Construction, by contrast, concentrates more spend among fewer firms. That contrast matters depending on which sectors you are looking at.
Where are the open tenders?
Bedford's procurement records show 6 contracts with method data. Of those, three went through open competition, one was a direct award, and two have no method recorded. The median contract value sits at roughly £112,000. Four contracts fell below threshold and two above. With 179 tenders on record worth £305 million in total, the pipeline tells a different story from the contract register. That tender value suggests sizeable opportunities do come through, while the contract register records a smaller slice of that activity. Below-threshold work outnumbers above-threshold contracts in the dataset, which may point to a council that handles a lot of its procurement at smaller scale. With 6 contracts carrying method data, the tender pipeline gives a clearer view of procurement patterns and upcoming work.
| # | Supplier | Spend |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | WILLMOTT DIXON CONSTRUCTION LIMITED | £31,713,637 |
| 2 | COMENSURA LIMITED | £16,123,676 |
| 3 | WATES CONSTRUCTION LIMITED | £14,220,949 |
| 4 | THE CENTRAL BEDFORDSHIRE GROUP LIMITED | £11,623,084 |
| 5 | STAGECOACH SERVICES LIMITED | £5,067,079 |
| 6 | SAI ARYAN PROPERTIES LIMITED | £4,793,894 |
| 7 | NETWORK RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE LIMITED | £4,711,423 |
| 8 | MENTAUR LIMITED | £3,847,772 |
| 9 | HARTWELL PRIMARY SCHOOL | £3,727,052 |
| 10 | WORTH PRIMARY SCHOOL | £3,708,415 |
About Us
CouncilLedger brings together spending records, contract awards, and tender notices from over 400 UK local authorities into one procurement intelligence platform. Our data covers 16 years of transactions, collected directly from council transparency publications and government procurement platforms. Search suppliers, track spending trends, discover tender opportunities, and monitor the contracts that matter to your business.
