Free Guide: Forest of Dean Spending & Supplier Profile
A free spending & supplier guide for Forest of Dean District Council · Non-metropolitan district · South West
Data covering 2013 to 2026
Recorded Spend
£217.5m
Transactions
85,720
Suppliers
1,323
Key Takeaways
- £217.5 million in recorded spend across 85,720 transactions since 2013
- 73.1% of matched spend goes to just five suppliers, with an HHI of 2,254
- 9 tenders worth £8.7 million sit in the pipeline against modest contract volumes
How much does a rural district council of 87,000 people actually spend?
More than you might expect. Our data covers £217.5 million in recorded spend across 85,720 transactions, drawn from 156 source files spanning 2013 to 2026. Forest of Dean is a non-metropolitan district in Gloucestershire, covering 203 square miles of largely rural territory in the South West. It has no combined authority sitting above it. For a district council serving a population of 87,000, the transaction volume is healthy. We have matched 1,329 suppliers against those payment records, spread across 21 sector categories. The spending data comes from fdean.gov.uk and Find a Tender, collected up to December 2025. On the contracts side, we hold 8 published contracts worth a combined £295,801 and 9 tenders valued at £8.7 million. The bulk of what we know about this council's buying behaviour comes from the payment-level data rather than formal contract notices.
Two suppliers dominate, and it's not even close
Publica Group (Support) Limited sits at the top with £48.1 million in recorded spend, followed by Biffa Waste Services at £41.5 million. Between them, those two account for roughly 41% of all matched spend. The top five identified suppliers take 73.1% of the total, and the top ten push that to 77.5%. The HHI sits at 2,254, which puts this firmly in moderately concentrated territory. Public administration (35.8% of spend) and waste management (31.2%) are the two dominant sectors across the records we hold. After that there is a long tail: IT and comms at 5.9%, professional services at 5.2%, and construction at 4.3%. If you're in one of those smaller categories, you're competing for a much thinner slice. Publica's dominance reflects the shared services model common among Gloucestershire districts, so that concentration is structural rather than a sign of closed doors.
Is there a route in through open competition?
The formal contract data tells a simpler story. We hold one contract with procurement method detail, and that one was an open procedure. So drawing broad conclusions about how Forest of Dean buys is difficult from contract notices alone. The tender pipeline is more interesting: 9 tenders worth £8.7 million give a better sense of upcoming opportunities. The median contract value on record is £295,801, which sits comfortably above most below-threshold limits. Most of this council's spending activity is visible through its payment data rather than structured procurement notices. With 1,323 identified suppliers on the books, there is clearly a broad base of firms receiving payments, even if the formal tendering record is quieter. For bid managers, the payment records are probably a more useful starting point for understanding who gets paid and how often than the contract register itself.
| # | Supplier | Spend |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | PUBLICA GROUP ( SUPPORT) LIMITED | £48,097,900 |
| 2 | BIFFA WASTE SERVICES LIMITED | £41,547,509 |
| 3 | GLOUCESTERSHIRE COUNTY CRICKET CLUB LIMITED | £4,519,340 |
| 4 | WEALDEN LEISURE LIMITED | £2,469,038 |
| 5 | SPELLER METCALFE LIMITED | £1,805,409 |
| 6 | CIVICA UK LIMITED | £1,779,603 |
| 7 | SOUTH WEST AUDIT PARTNERSHIP LIMITED | £1,100,220 |
| 8 | DELL CORPORATION LIMITED | £971,452 |
| 9 | ARMAC DEMOLITION LIMITED | £874,424 |
| 10 | IDOX SOFTWARE LTD | £701,654 |
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.
