Free Guide: West of England Spending & Supplier Profile
A free spending & supplier guide for West of England Combined Authority · Combined authority · South West
Data covering 2016 to 2026
Recorded Spend
£817.1m
Transactions
18,026
Suppliers
1,027
Key Takeaways
- £817 million in recorded spend across 18,026 transactions from 2016 to 2026
- 1,052 matched suppliers spread across 21 sectors with an unconcentrated HHI of 784
- Transportation and storage dominates at 32.3% of matched spend by sector
How big a buyer is West of England?
Big. Our data covers £817 million in recorded spend across 18,026 transactions, spanning 2016 to 2026. That spend is drawn from 49 source files published on the authority's own site and Find a Tender. For a combined authority serving a population just under a million across 368 square miles, the volume of purchasing activity is steady and broad. We've tracked 49 published contracts worth a combined £789,526 and 54 tenders valued at £384.4 million. The transaction data tells you more about day-to-day purchasing patterns, while the tender pipeline gives you a better sense of larger upcoming opportunities. West of England has been publishing consistently over the decade we cover, which gives you a reasonable window into how the authority spends. If you're scoping combined authorities in the South West, this is one with a long and active procurement record in our dataset.
Transport firms take the biggest share, but the field is wide open
First West of England tops the identified supplier list with £47.7 million in recorded spend, followed by Network Rail Infrastructure at £43.5 million. Both are transport or infrastructure names, and that pattern holds across the data. Transportation and storage accounts for 32.3% of matched spend, with construction at 19.2% and professional services at 16.4%. Those three sectors make up roughly two-thirds of everything we've tracked. But the market is not stitched up. An HHI of 784 is low, and across the 1,052 suppliers we've matched, 233 sit in professional and technical services alone. The top five suppliers account for 51.9% of spend, and the top ten for 69.3%. So while the big transport contracts pull spend toward a handful of firms, the long tail is wide. Education (5.3%) and arts and recreation (4.7%) also show up, with Bristol Music Trust and Keston College each pulling in over £11 million.
What does the procurement route look like?
Of the 4 contracts where we have procurement method data, the split is even: one open tender, one direct award, and two limited procedures. The median contract value sits at around £134,900. That's a snapshot of method data, so treat it as context rather than the full picture. Where it gets more interesting is the tender pipeline. With 54 tenders recorded at a combined value of £384.4 million, the authority is clearly putting large-value work out to market. Two of those contracts sit above the procurement threshold and two below, which suggests a mix of routine and higher-value procurement activity. The authority publishes through both its own site and Find a Tender, so both channels carry live opportunities. Based on what we can see, this is an authority that uses competitive routes for its bigger pieces of work, though the contract-level data doesn't tell the full story on consistency.
| # | Supplier | Spend |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | FIRST WEST OF ENGLAND LIMITED | £47,722,565 |
| 2 | NETWORK RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE LIMITED | £43,493,674 |
| 3 | STAGECOACH SERVICES LIMITED | £16,991,236 |
| 4 | UNIVERSITY OF BATH (THE) | £14,018,143 |
| 5 | WSP UK LIMITED | £13,967,525 |
| 6 | BRISTOL MUSIC TRUST | £11,847,000 |
| 7 | KESTON COLLEGE | £11,081,644 |
| 8 | GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY LIMITED | £10,525,719 |
| 9 | COMENSURA LIMITED | £6,757,518 |
| 10 | WEMOVE SOLUTIONS LTD | £5,329,053 |
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.
