Free Guide: Dartford Spending & Supplier Profile
A free spending & supplier guide for Dartford Borough Council · Non-metropolitan district · South East
Data covering 2022 to 2026
Recorded Spend
£39.6m
Transactions
3,937
Suppliers
396
Key Takeaways
- £39.6 million in recorded spend across 3,937 transactions from 2022 to 2026
- 396 identified suppliers with an unconcentrated HHI of 366, meaning spend is well spread
- 36 of 39 published contracts were direct awards, with just 2 going through open competition
A £39.6 million buyer in north Kent
Dartford Borough Council covers 28.2 square miles with a population of around 114,000, sitting in the Kent corridor between London and the Channel ports. Our data tracks £39.6 million in recorded spend across 3,937 transactions from 2022 to 2026, drawn from 7 source files published on dartford.gov.uk and Find a Tender. On the contracts side, we hold 49 published contracts worth a combined £10.8 million, and 62 tenders valued at £83.3 million. For a non-metropolitan district of this size, Dartford is an active buyer. The spending records span nearly four years, giving you a reasonable window into procurement patterns. We have matched 419 suppliers to Companies House records, covering the bulk of the transaction volume. That supplier count tells you this is a council dealing with a broad range of providers rather than funnelling everything through a handful of firms.
Construction dominates, but the field is wide open
Construction is the largest sector in our dataset by some margin, accounting for 29.2% of matched spend at £5.5 million. Three of the top five suppliers sit in construction, led by Clifford Devlin Limited at £2.5 million. Administrative and support services come second at 17.8% (£3.4 million), with Sureserve Energy Services South West pulling in £1.7 million. Real estate activities take third place at 11.1%. But here is the interesting part: despite those concentrations at the top, the overall market is wide open. The HHI score is just 366, which is low. The top five identified suppliers account for 32.8% of recorded spend, and the top ten for 45.2%. Across the 396 suppliers we have tracked, no single firm commands a dominant share. If you are looking at Dartford from a construction or property services angle, there are clearly active spending streams, but you would be entering a competitive field with dozens of suppliers already in the mix.
Why are 36 out of 39 contracts direct awards?
This is the number that jumps out. Of the 39 contracts in our procurement data, 36 were direct awards. Just 2 went through open competition and 1 through a limited process. The median contract value sits at £50,000, and 33 of the 39 fall below the procurement threshold. So much of this direct awarding likely reflects lower-value work where councils have more discretion. Only 6 contracts crossed the above-threshold mark. On the tender pipeline side, Dartford has published 62 tenders worth £83.3 million, which suggests a more active competitive process at the higher end than the contracts data alone would indicate. That split is worth understanding: the published contract register skews toward smaller, directly awarded work, while the tender record captures larger opportunities that did go to market. For anyone tracking upcoming opportunities here, the tender pipeline is where the competitive action appears to sit.
| # | Supplier | Spend |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | CLIFFORD DEVLIN LIMITED | £2,513,730 |
| 2 | SURESERVE ENERGY SERVICES SOUTH WEST LIMITED | £1,674,269 |
| 3 | PARAMOUNT PROPERTY SERVICES LIMITED | £810,391 |
| 4 | GL EVENTS UK LIMITED | £602,898 |
| 5 | ARAN INSULATION LIMITED | £586,307 |
| 6 | FCC RECYCLING (UK) LIMITED | £503,544 |
| 7 | HARDSCAPE PRODUCTS LIMITED | £485,603 |
| 8 | FIRST STOP HOUSING SOLUTIONS LIMITED | £460,627 |
| 9 | SAFE HOMES S.E LIMITED | £449,274 |
| 10 | ZURICH INSURANCE COMPANY LTD | £435,950 |
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.
