Free Guide: Plymouth Spending & Supplier Profile
A free spending & supplier guide for Plymouth City Council · Unitary authority · South West
Data covering 2017 to 2026
Recorded Spend
£1.9bn
Transactions
732,333
Suppliers
4,131
Key Takeaways
- £1.86 billion in recorded spend across 732,333 transactions since 2019
- 4,131 identified suppliers with an unconcentrated HHI of 172, spreading spend widely
- 32% of matched spend goes to health and social work, the dominant sector
How big a buyer is Plymouth?
Plymouth is a sizeable unitary authority, home to around 263,000 people in just 30.9 square miles. And the spending data matches that density. Our dataset covers £1.86 billion in recorded spend across 732,333 payment transactions, drawn from 90 source files published between 2017 and 2026. That works out at a lot of purchasing activity for a city of this size. On the contracts side, we've tracked 59 published contracts worth a combined £22.3 million, alongside 86 tenders with a stated pipeline value of £7.68 billion. That tender figure looks eye-catching, but bear in mind it reflects advertised ceiling values rather than actual awarded amounts. The payment data goes back to January 2019, giving you a solid five-plus years of transactional history to work with. Plymouth also sits within the LHC Procurement Group, a consortium open to all public sector bodies, which may shape how some construction and maintenance work gets routed.
Health and social care dominates, but the spend is spread thin
Of the 4,557 suppliers we've matched to Companies House records, 371 sit in the health and social work sector. That sector accounts for 32% of matched spend, pulling in £411 million. Construction follows at £196 million (15.3%), then administrative and support services at £192 million (15%). Professional and technical services add another 10.2%. So the top four sectors cover roughly 72% of recorded spend between them. But here's what stands out: concentration is very low. Plymouth's HHI score is just 172, well inside the unconcentrated range. The top five suppliers account for only 23.9% of spend, and the top ten for 32.6%. South West Highways leads with £96.2 million, followed by Balfour Beatty at £75.9 million and Delt Shared Services at £66.5 million. If you're in health or social care, three suppliers in the top ten operate in that space, including Gemcare South West and Cambian Childcare.
Are contracts here mostly competed or handed out?
The published contract data is relatively slim. We hold 4 contracts with procurement method information, and of those, 3 went through open tender while 1 was a direct award. All four sit above the procurement threshold. The median contract value across these is around £6 million, so we're looking at larger, chunkier deals rather than a high volume of smaller lots. With 86 tenders on record worth a combined £7.68 billion in advertised value, there's clearly a pipeline of formally advertised opportunities flowing through Find a Tender. The source data comes from both Find a Tender and Plymouth's own website, so you're getting a view of both national-level notices and locally published spending. The contract sample is too small to draw firm conclusions about Plymouth's overall procurement preferences. But the tender volume suggests a council that does put work out to market regularly, which is worth keeping an eye on.
| # | Supplier | Spend |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | SOUTH WEST HIGHWAYS LIMITED | £96,245,820 |
| 2 | BALFOUR BEATTY PLC | £75,867,513 |
| 3 | DELT SHARED SERVICES LIMITED | £66,505,030 |
| 4 | PYRAMID SCHOOLS (PLYMOUTH) LIMITED | £38,148,432 |
| 5 | HARBOUR CENTRE LIMITED | £29,850,633 |
| 6 | GEMCARE SOUTH WEST LIMITED | £26,961,470 |
| 7 | CAMBIAN CHILDCARE LIMITED | £23,229,106 |
| 8 | PLYMOUTH CITYBUS LIMITED | £22,248,380 |
| 9 | PERTEMPS LIMITED | £19,996,752 |
| 10 | PREMIER CARE (PLYMOUTH) LIMITED | £19,379,233 |
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.
