Free Guide: Gateshead Spending & Supplier Profile
A free spending & supplier guide for Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council · Metropolitan district · North East
Data covering 2023 to 2026
Recorded Spend
£0
Transactions
310,518
Suppliers
1,485
Key Takeaways
- 310,518 transactions tracked across 1,566 matched suppliers from 2023 to 2026
- 24.6% of recorded spend goes to health and social care suppliers
- HHI of 293 points to a widely distributed supplier base with low concentration
How big a buyer is Gateshead?
Gateshead is a metropolitan borough of around 202,000 people in the North East, and our data covers a busy procurement operation. Across 310,518 transactions from 2023 to 2026, drawn from 13 source files, we've matched 1,566 suppliers to Companies House records. That gives you a solid read on where the money goes. On the contracts side, we hold 101 published contracts worth a combined £3.6 million, alongside 122 tenders valued at £47.9 million. The council sources data through its own website, its modern.gov platform and Find a Tender. It is part of the North East Combined Authority, so some procurement activity may sit at that level rather than with the borough directly. For a metro district of this size, the transaction volume is high, which means there's a decent amount of day-to-day purchasing flowing through the books alongside the larger formal contracts.
Health and care dominate, but the supplier base is wide open
Health and social work is the biggest sector in our data, accounting for 24.6% of recorded spend across 170 identified suppliers. Five of the top ten suppliers by spend sit in that category, including Community Integrated Care at £4.4 million, Akari Care at £3.4 million and Gainford Care Homes at £2.7 million. But the single largest supplier we've tracked is South Tyne and Wear Energy Recovery, a waste management firm, at £20.9 million. UK Plumbing Supplies follows at £13.5 million in wholesale trade. Beyond those two, spend drops off quickly. The top five suppliers account for 29.9% of recorded spend, and the top ten for 38.1%. An HHI of 293 confirms this is an unconcentrated market. If you're looking at Gateshead for care services, you'll find a crowded field of providers already in the mix. Outside care, admin services and wholesale trade each take around 10% of spend, with construction, education and professional services clustered in the 5-6% range.
All open tenders, but only a handful of formal contracts
Of the 6 contracts with procurement method data, every single one came through open competition. That's a clean sheet, with no direct awards in the formal contract records we hold. Four of those six sit above the procurement threshold, and the median contract value is £404,084. The tender pipeline tells a fuller story. With 122 tenders worth £47.9 million on record, there's a reasonable flow of opportunities coming through, and the open-only approach in our contract data suggests Gateshead runs a competitive process as standard. That said, 6 contracts with method data is a small window onto a council running over 310,000 transactions, so the picture of how Gateshead buys day-to-day is more complex than the formal contract record alone can show. The transaction-level data fills in the gaps, showing a broad spread of suppliers getting paid regularly rather than spend pooling with a few preferred firms.
| # | Supplier | Spend |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | SOUTH TYNE & WEAR ENERGY RECOVERY LTD | £20,900,085 |
| 2 | UK PLUMBING SUPPLIES LIMITED | £13,453,265 |
| 3 | PINNACLE SCHOOLS (GATESHEAD) LIMITED | £7,120,534 |
| 4 | COMMUNITY INTEGRATED CARE | £4,364,397 |
| 5 | EDF ENERGY LIMITED | £4,185,175 |
| 6 | AKARI CARE LIMITED | £3,408,627 |
| 7 | INTERACTIVE DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT LIMITED | £2,776,079 |
| 8 | GAINFORD CARE HOMES LIMITED | £2,693,975 |
| 9 | ASHDOWN CARE HOMES LTD | £2,465,271 |
| 10 | ST ANNE'S COMMUNITY SERVICES | £2,458,131 |
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.
