Free Guide: Blackburn with Darwen Spending & Supplier Profile
A free spending & supplier guide for Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council · Unitary authority · North West
Data covering 2010 to 2026
Recorded Spend
£2.6bn
Transactions
865,578
Suppliers
5,300
Key Takeaways
- £2.55 billion in recorded spend across 865,578 transactions since 2010
- 31.5% of matched spend goes to health and social care suppliers
- 181 HHI score across 5,300 identified suppliers, an unconcentrated market
£2.55 billion from a borough of 150,000 people?
Blackburn with Darwen is a unitary authority in Lancashire covering 52.9 square miles, so it handles everything from social care to waste collection to highways. That breadth shows up in the numbers. Our dataset covers £2.55 billion in recorded spend across 865,578 transactions, drawn from 26 source files published between 2010 and 2026. We have matched 7,386 suppliers to Companies House records across those payment runs. On the contracts side, the picture is thinner: 60 published contracts worth a combined £990,000, plus 85 tenders valued at £242.7 million. That gap between transaction-level spend and formal contract records is worth bearing in mind. The payment data gives you a rich, granular view of where money actually flows. The contract data tells you less. If you are researching this council, the transaction records are where the real detail sits.
Health and social care dominates, but it's not a closed shop
Of the spend we have tracked, 31.5% goes to health and social work suppliers. Six of the top ten identified suppliers sit in that sector, led by Lancashire County Care Ltd at £87.2 million and Age UK Blackburn with Darwen at £71.3 million. Professional and technical services comes in second at 12.1%, then construction at 9.0%. But here is the thing: despite that heavy health spend, the market is not concentrated. An HHI of 181 is very low, and the top five suppliers account for just 23.1% of recorded spend. Across 5,300 identified suppliers, spending is spread widely. Even in health and social care alone, 518 different suppliers have received payments. Suez Recycling and Recovery (£53.1 million) and Capita Business Services (£49.2 million) are the main non-health names in the top ten, covering waste management and IT respectively.
Only three published contracts, all open tender
The formal procurement data here is sparse. Our records show just three published contracts, all above threshold, all awarded through open procedure. Median contract value across those three is £360,000. That is a very small window into how this council actually buys. The tender pipeline is more informative, with 85 tenders on record worth £242.7 million combined. So there is clearly procurement activity happening, but most of it is visible through tender notices rather than published contract awards. All three recorded contracts went through open competition, with no direct awards in the formal data. Whether that pattern holds across the wider buying activity is hard to say from what we can see. The real story of how Blackburn with Darwen spends its money lives in the transaction data, where those 865,578 payment records give you a much fuller picture of supplier relationships over time.
| # | Supplier | Spend |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | LANCASHIRE COUNTY CARE LTD | £87,242,945 |
| 2 | AGE UK BLACKBURN WITH DARWEN | £71,334,907 |
| 3 | SUEZ RECYCLING AND RECOVERY UK LTD | £53,107,784 |
| 4 | CAPITA BUSINESS SERVICES LTD | £49,196,746 |
| 5 | CREATIVE LINK SUPPORT LTD | £45,564,570 |
| 6 | LIFEWAYS PARAGON LIMITED | £45,388,497 |
| 7 | GUARDIAN HOMECARE UK LTD. | £44,429,771 |
| 8 | ALTERNATIVE FUTURES GROUP LIMITED | £40,810,969 |
| 9 | NETWORK RAIL LIMITED | £35,518,245 |
| 10 | I CARE (GB) LIMITED | £29,303,370 |
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.
