Free Guide: Lambeth Spending & Supplier Profile
A free spending & supplier guide for London Borough of Lambeth · London borough · London
Data covering 2010 to 2026
Recorded Spend
£7.4bn
Transactions
1,898,664
Suppliers
7,312
Key Takeaways
- £7.4 billion in recorded spend across nearly 1.9 million transactions since 2010
- 7,312 identified suppliers spread across 22 sectors, with an unconcentrated HHI of 244
- 99 tenders worth over £1.5 billion are in the pipeline, though published contracts remain sparse
£7.4 billion and counting: how big a buyer is Lambeth?
Lambeth is a major buyer. Our data covers £7.4 billion in recorded spend across nearly 1.9 million payment transactions, drawn from 78 source files spanning 2010 to 2026. For a London borough of 321,800 people packed into just 10.4 square miles, that is a serious volume of purchasing activity. We have matched 7,479 suppliers against Companies House records, giving you a solid view of where the money flows. The contract register is thinner than you might expect for a council of this size, with only 43 published contracts worth a combined £7.9 million. But the tender pipeline tells a different story: 99 notices with a combined value of over £1.5 billion. The gap between those two numbers suggests Lambeth's formal contract register captures only a fraction of its buying activity. The payment-level data is where the real picture sits.
Who gets the big cheques?
GLA Holdings tops our supplier list with £524 million in recorded spend, which makes sense given Lambeth's position within the Greater London Authority structure. Matrix SCM follows at £306 million, pointing to heavy use of agency staffing frameworks. Mears Limited sits third at £175 million, reflecting ongoing housing and property maintenance work. Across the top five identified suppliers, spend accounts for 27.7% of the total we have tracked, and the top ten take 36.3%. With an HHI of 244, that is low. Spend is genuinely spread out across the 7,312 suppliers in our records. By sector, real estate leads at 19.6%, followed by administrative and support services at 17.3% and health and social work at 13.7%. Construction pulls in 11% of spend. If you are looking at health or social care commissioning, 1,026 matched suppliers are active in that sector alone, more than any other category.
Almost everything is direct award, so what does that tell you?
Of the contracts we have tracked through formal procurement notices, the picture is stark: both published contract awards in our data were direct awards. There are no open tenders or restricted procedures in the contract register. The median contract value across those two sits at £3.95 million, so these are not small purchases slipping through on convenience. That said, with only two contracts formally recorded this way, it would be a stretch to call this a complete picture of how Lambeth buys. The tender pipeline paints a broader canvas, with 99 notices worth £1.5 billion collectively. Lambeth is also a member of the LHC Procurement Group, a consortium open to all public sector bodies, which likely channels some purchasing through framework routes that would not appear as standalone contract awards. For anyone tracking upcoming opportunities, the tender feed looks far more active than the contract register suggests.
| # | Supplier | Spend |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | GREATER LONDON AUTHORITY HOLDINGS LIMITED | £523,630,721 |
| 2 | MATRIX SCM LIMITED | £305,594,469 |
| 3 | MEARS LIMITED | £175,255,847 |
| 4 | VEOLIA ES (UK) LIMITED | £136,036,046 |
| 5 | TRANSPORT TRADING LIMITED | £104,737,905 |
| 6 | REGENTER MYATTS FIELD NORTH LIMITED | £92,899,566 |
| 7 | CAPITA BUSINESS SERVICES LTD | £91,406,502 |
| 8 | T BROWN GROUP LIMITED | £82,430,117 |
| 9 | SERCO LIMITED | £65,645,651 |
| 10 | DENHAN INTERNATIONAL LIMITED | £56,380,472 |
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.
