Free Guide: Cheshire East Spending & Supplier Profile
A free spending & supplier guide for Cheshire East Council · Unitary authority · North West
Data covering 2018 to 2026
Recorded Spend
£1.9bn
Transactions
259,476
Suppliers
3,156
Key Takeaways
- £1.9 billion in recorded spend across 259,476 transactions since 2018
- 29.3% of matched spend goes to construction, with health and education following
- 136 live tenders worth £842 million signal a busy pipeline ahead
Nearly £2 billion in recorded spend. What does that buy?
Cheshire East is a large unitary authority serving nearly 387,000 people across 450 square miles in the North West. Our dataset covers £1.9 billion in recorded spend across 259,476 transactions, drawn from 24 source files and collected as recently as January 2026. The data runs from 2018 to 2026, giving you a solid window into buying patterns over time. On the contract side, the records show 452 published contracts worth a combined £14.6 million. But the real volume sits in the transaction data. And then there are 136 tenders worth £842 million, which tells you this council has a busy forward pipeline. For a unitary authority of this size, that tender value is worth paying attention to. If you are tracking councils in Cheshire or the wider North West, this is one that generates consistent procurement activity across multiple years.
Construction dominates, but who else is getting paid?
Of the 3,156 identified suppliers in our data, the top five account for 29.4% of recorded spend. That gives an HHI of 330, which is low and points to a fragmented supplier base rather than a small club of incumbents. Construction firms take the biggest slice at 29.3% of matched spend, with Abel Environmental Services alone accounting for £256 million. Three of the top five suppliers sit in the construction sector. Health and social work comes second at 19.6%, spread across 456 matched suppliers, making it the most supplier-diverse category. Education follows at 13.7%. Further down, professional services, transport, admin support, and IT each sit between 4% and 5%. So while construction pulls the headline numbers, the spend is actually spread across 22 sectors with no single category running away with everything. The top 10 suppliers take 37.5% between them.
All open tenders and a chunky median. What's the route in?
Based on the contract records we hold, all seven above-threshold contracts went through open tender. Zero direct awards in that set. The median contract value sits at £950,000, so these are not small packages. That open-only pattern, at least in what we can see, suggests a council that runs formal processes for its larger work. Cheshire East is also a member of the Procure Plus Holdings consortium, which is open to all public sector bodies. That could mean some procurement routes through framework agreements rather than standalone tenders. With 136 tenders on record worth £842 million, there is a pipeline to watch. The contract data we hold is a small slice of the overall picture, covering just seven contracts, so the open-only pattern may not tell the whole story across lower-value or off-contract spending.
| # | Supplier | Spend |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ABEL ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES LIMITED | £256,096,155 |
| 2 | JOHN GRAHAM CONSTRUCTION LIMITED | £80,410,407 |
| 3 | SERVICE SOLUTIONS TRANSPORT LP | £57,953,811 |
| 4 | BALFOUR BEATTY REGIONAL CONSTRUCTION LIMITED | £54,310,186 |
| 5 | WIRRAL COMMUNITY NARROWBOAT TRUST | £34,315,698 |
| 6 | EQUANS SERVICES LIMITED | £33,488,467 |
| 7 | COMENSURA LIMITED | £27,165,703 |
| 8 | AVANTAGE (CHESHIRE) LIMITED | £25,935,794 |
| 9 | THE ROSSENDALE TRUST LIMITED | £23,503,514 |
| 10 | INSIGHT DIRECT (UK) LTD | £23,212,399 |
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.
