Free Guide: York Spending & Supplier Profile
A free spending & supplier guide for City of York Council · Unitary authority · Yorkshire and The Humber
Data covering 2011 to 2026
Recorded Spend
£2.5bn
Transactions
1,042,942
Suppliers
5,146
Key Takeaways
- £2.5 billion in recorded spend across over 1 million transactions since 2011
- 5,146 identified suppliers with an unconcentrated HHI of 95, spreading spend widely
- 103 tenders worth £773 million are in the pipeline from Find a Tender
£2.5 billion over 15 years: how big a buyer is York?
City of York Council is a unitary authority covering 105 square miles and around 211,000 people in Yorkshire and The Humber. Our dataset covers £2.5 billion in recorded spend across more than 1 million transactions, drawn from 17 source files spanning 2011 to 2026. That is a long window of data, which gives you a solid view of how this council spends over time. We have matched 7,482 supplier records from sources including data.yorkopendata.org and Find a Tender. The contract data is thinner, with 51 published contracts worth a combined £476,000. But the tender pipeline tells a different story: 103 tenders with a combined value of £773 million. York is not a huge authority by population, but the volume of transactional data here is deep. If you are building a picture of spending patterns over a full cycle, this is useful ground.
Where does the money actually go?
Health and social work is the biggest sector in our data, accounting for 22.5% of recorded spend at £384 million, spread across 535 identified suppliers. Construction follows at 12.9% (£221 million), then administrative support services at 9.7%. Among the top suppliers we have tracked, Yorwaste Limited leads with £84.9 million, followed by the council's own trading arm, City of York Trading Limited, at £75.1 million. Two transport operators, First York and First West Yorkshire, together account for over £51 million. Construction is split between William Birch & Sons and Wates Construction, each around £25 million. The concentration picture is striking. An HHI of 95 is very low, and the top five suppliers account for just 15.2% of spend. Across 5,146 identified suppliers, York spreads its money widely. For anyone looking to enter this market, that pattern is worth noting.
Is this a council that tests the market?
York's formal contract data is limited: just 4 published contracts in our records, with a median value of around £115,000. Of those, 3 went through open tender and 1 is recorded with an unknown method. Two sit above the procurement threshold and two below. That is a small sample, so it is hard to draw firm conclusions about procurement behaviour from contracts alone. The tender data is more revealing. With 103 tenders worth £773 million logged on Find a Tender, there is a healthy pipeline of formally advertised opportunities. The ratio of tenders to contracts suggests York is active in publishing opportunities, even if the contract award data we hold is sparse. If you are tracking upcoming work, the tender feed looks more productive than the contract register for this council. The open tender rate on the contracts we do have, 3 out of 4, is encouraging if you are competing for new business.
| # | Supplier | Spend |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | YORWASTE LIMITED | £84,909,653 |
| 2 | CITY OF YORK TRADING LIMITED | £75,122,915 |
| 3 | UNITED RESPONSE | £39,818,133 |
| 4 | SEWELL EDUCATION (YORK) LIMITED | £31,611,375 |
| 5 | FIRST YORK LIMITED | £27,594,334 |
| 6 | WILLIAM BIRCH & SONS LIMITED | £25,971,542 |
| 7 | WATES CONSTRUCTION LIMITED | £25,385,704 |
| 8 | DLA PIPER UK LLP | £25,121,318 |
| 9 | FIRST WEST YORKSHIRE LIMITED | £24,322,972 |
| 10 | GREENWICH LEISURE LTD | £23,149,812 |
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.
