Free Guide: West Midlands Spending & Supplier Profile
A free spending & supplier guide for West Midlands Combined Authority · Combined authority · West Midlands
Data covering 2016 to 2026
Recorded Spend
£3.4bn
Transactions
79,914
Suppliers
1,889
Key Takeaways
- £3.35 billion in recorded spend across nearly 80,000 transactions since 2016
- 1,889 identified suppliers with an unconcentrated market at HHI 648
- Construction and professional services together account for over half of matched spend
£3.35 billion and counting: how big is this buyer?
West Midlands Combined Authority is one of the larger combined authorities in England, covering nearly 3 million people across 348 square miles. And the spending data matches that scale. Our dataset covers £3.35 billion in recorded spend across 79,914 transactions, drawn from 87 source files and spanning 2016 to 2026. On the contracts side, we've tracked 161 published contracts worth a combined £18.7 million, plus 214 tenders valued at around £302.7 million. That gap between contract value and tender value is worth noting. It suggests a decent pipeline of upcoming or recently advertised work. For a combined authority, the spend profile leans heavily on transport and infrastructure, which makes sense given WMCA's remit around regional connectivity and economic development. If you're working in those sectors, this is a buyer spending real money over a long period.
Construction and transport dominate, but who's actually getting paid?
Of the 1,889 suppliers we've identified in the data, the top five account for 45% of recorded spend and the top ten for 59%. That gives an HHI of 648, which is low. Spend is reasonably spread, not locked up with a handful of firms. Colas Rail leads the pack at £411.6 million, followed by Travel West Midlands at £314.8 million. Construction firms take 29.7% of matched spend across 101 identified suppliers, while professional and technical services claim 22.1% with a much larger pool of 402 suppliers. Transport and storage sits third at 11.3%, and education fourth at 10.2%. The professional services category is interesting. It has the widest supplier base by far, which suggests more fragmented buying and potentially more openings for new entrants. Construction spend, by contrast, flows through fewer hands. That split between broad and narrow supplier pools tells you something about where competition sits in WMCA's spending.
Only six contracts on file, so what does the procurement picture look like?
The contract data here is thin. We hold just six published contracts for WMCA: three awarded through open tender, two via direct award, and one through a limited process. Four sit above threshold, two below. The median contract value across those six is £659,436. With such a small sample, drawing firm conclusions about procurement behaviour would be a stretch. But the tender pipeline is more telling. Those 214 tenders worth £302.7 million suggest WMCA is an active buyer that advertises work regularly. The bulk of the spending data we hold, nearly 80,000 transaction rows, comes from purchase-to-pay records rather than formal contract notices. That's common with combined authorities, where much of the spending sits in revenue grants, transport subsidies, and programme funding rather than traditional procured contracts. Worth keeping in mind when you're sizing up the opportunity here.
| # | Supplier | Spend |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | COLAS RAIL LIMITED | £411,560,145 |
| 2 | TRAVEL WEST MIDLANDS LIMITED | £314,842,610 |
| 3 | CITY OF BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY COLLEGE | £119,307,343 |
| 4 | VOLKERFITZPATRICK LIMITED | £91,254,513 |
| 5 | BIRMINGHAM CITY COLLEGE LIMITED | £77,472,470 |
| 6 | PELL FRISCHMANN LIMITED | £74,823,487 |
| 7 | WEST MIDLANDS TRAVEL LIMITED | £74,432,191 |
| 8 | DIAMOND BUS LIMITED | £72,528,152 |
| 9 | MIDLAND METRO LIMITED | £53,068,013 |
| 10 | MORGAN SINDALL LIMITED | £41,975,875 |
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.
