Durham: which contracts run out next, and who holds them.
Durham is a unitary authority in the North East. We hold 2,505 of its award notices, and 152 contracts due to end within 18 months. Everything here comes from public records: award notices the council itself published, and the papers it publishes before each committee meeting.
Data updated: 20 September 2026 (committee papers) | 18 September 2026 (award notices)
GovLeads reads Durham's papers every weeknight. A value is published on 1,866 of those 2,505 award notices, so the total is a floor, not the council's spend.
Next committee meetings
The next 5 scheduled meetings at Durham, taken from the council's own calendar. Papers usually appear five clear working days beforehand, and we read them the night they land.
| Date | Committee |
|---|---|
| 21 Sep 2026 | Police and Crime Panel |
| 22 Sep 2026 | Combined Fire Authority for County Durham and Darlington Appeals Committee |
| 22 Sep 2026 | Mountsett Crematorium Joint Committee |
| 23 Sep 2026 | Central Durham Crematorium Joint Committee |
| 23 Sep 2026 | Health and Wellbeing Board |
Biggest suppliers
Ranked by total awarded value across every Durham award notice we hold. Values on multi-supplier frameworks are shared across the suppliers named on them, so a place on a large framework does not inflate a single firm.
| Supplier | Awarded value | Awards |
|---|---|---|
| Compass Contract Services (UK) Ltd t/a Chartwells | £100m | 2 |
| EDF Energy Customers Limited | £84.0m | 1 |
| H W Martin Waste Ltd | £78.2m | 4 |
| Esh Construction Ltd | £43.9m | 11 |
| County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust | £41.0m | 9 |
Largest awards of the last 12 months
The biggest awards Durham has notified in the last year. Awards sharing a title and end date are collapsed into a single row, so a framework or dynamic purchasing system appears once rather than once per supplier.
| Award | Supplier | Value | Route |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supply of Gas | Corona Energy Retail 1 Limited | £30.0m | Framework call-off |
| Refurbishment, Extension and Associated Works at Rivergreen Aykley Heads | Willmott Dixon Construction Limited | £10.0m | Framework call-off |
| Renewal of Durham County Council's Microsoft Agreement via NHSSBS DWS2 | Softcat Plc | £8.6m | Framework call-off |
| GB-Durham: TPPL Durham County Council NEPO HGV Lot 1 - 18 x 26t RCVs (25281) | Leo Group Limited (Bell Truck & Van BLS Truck & Van) | £4.6m | Not specified |
| GB-Durham: TPPL Durham County Council NEPO HGV Lot 4 - 14 x Vehicles (28561) | Econ Engineering Limited | £3.0m | Not specified |
How the money is awarded
56% of Durham's awarded value went through open competition and 3% was awarded directly. A further 23% sits on notices that do not state a route at all. Directly awarded work is the part of the market that never reaches a competitive notice, so it is the part you have to see coming upstream.
- Competed 56% (£706m)
- Other/Unspecified 23% (£285m)
- Framework/DPS 18% (£223m)
- Direct 3% (£39.8m)
Contracts expiring within 18 months
The 5 largest by value on record for Durham, of those with an end date inside 18 months. A re-procurement decision normally reaches a committee months before the contract itself runs out, which is the point at which scope is still moveable, so the months-left column matters as much as the value.
| Ends | Months left | Contract | Supplier | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Oct 2026 | 1 | Greenfield Academy, Newton Aycliffe New Build | Esh Construction Limited | £14.0m |
| 4 Dec 2026 | 2 | Refurbishment, Extension and Associated Works at Rivergreen Aykley Heads | Willmott Dixon Construction Limited | £10.0m |
| 31 Mar 2027 | 6 | Framework Agreement for the Design, Supply and Installation of Level-access Showers and…5 award notices, shown once | framework, 5 suppliers | £7.0m |
| 31 Dec 2026 | 3 | Framework for Design and/or Supply and/or Installation of Play Space Refurbishments5 award notices, shown once | framework, 5 suppliers | £4.0m |
| 28 Feb 2027 | 5 | Framework Agreement for the Provision of Street Lighting Works.3 award notices, shown once | framework, 3 suppliers | £4.0m |
147 more Durham contracts expire by 20 March 2028. Start a free trial to see them.
Procurement radar
Committee papers Durham published in the last four months whose title uses the language of buying.
No procurement decision reached a committee here in the last four months. Durham published 349 papers in that window and none of them is titled as a tender, an award, an extension or a waiver.
That is common and it is not a gap in our reading: most councils delegate day-to-day buying to officers, and only the larger decisions reach a committee with a paper to their name. The award notices above are the fuller record of what this council actually buys.
Nearby councils
Suppliers rarely sell to one council alone. These are the authorities next door, and the ones covering the same ground at a different tier.
Councils it borders
Covering the same ground
Where Durham spends most
The service areas taking the largest share of awarded value here. Each one has its own page explaining what we watch for.
Where this comes from
Awards, suppliers and expiry dates come from award notices published to Contracts Finder and Find a Tender by County Durham. The award data set was last refreshed on 18 September 2026, so notices published since then are not yet counted here. Values are as notified; where a notice names several suppliers, the value is shared across them.
Committee papers and meeting dates come from Durham's own published papers, at https://democracy.durham.gov.uk. Every paper linked above is on the council's own site. Committee-paper figures were extracted on 20 September 2026.
What we leave out. A notice naming more than one buying authority is excluded, because it does not say how the value splits between them. So are notices from bodies that share this council's name but are separate organisations, such as the local college or NHS trust. Both would otherwise be counted here as County Durham's.
Nothing on this page is modelled, estimated or inferred. Every number is a count or a sum over those two public sources. Where a figure would be a guess, it is left out.