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Council tenders: how to find and win council contracts

Published 30 October 2026

Councils buy almost everything a local area needs, from building repairs and transport to care, cleaning, catering and staff training. In our count, they posted about a third of all new tender notices on Find a Tender. This guide covers where council tenders are advertised, how many there are, how to find out who holds a council contract now, and how to choose which ones to bid on.

Where councils advertise tenders

For contracts worth at least £30,000 including tax, a council that advertises the contract has to publish a notice on the Central Digital Platform first, under section 87 of the Procurement Act.

Councils in England also have to publish details of every invitation to tender worth more than £5,000, at least every quarter, under the Local Government Transparency Code 2015. Government guidance says councils may use a below-threshold tender notice on Find a Tender for these smaller tenders instead of their own website, but they don't have to. So for council work under £30,000, check the council's own website too.

How many council tenders are there?

We counted new tender notices on Find a Tender between 1 September and 28 October 2026. Of 3,060 notices, 1,076 (35%) came from councils, which is about 538 a month. Of the council notices that stated a value, 474 of 888 (53%) were under £500,000.

Here's how that splits across the sectors we cover, by the notice's main classification code:

| Sector | Council notices | All notices | Council share | |---|---|---|---| | Construction trades | 207 | 449 | 46% | | Training and education | 52 | 120 | 43% | | Passenger transport | 10 | 27 | 37% | | Care | 154 | 244 | 63% | | Cleaning | 14 | 67 | 21% | | Catering | 13 | 63 | 21% |

Passenger transport looks small on Find a Tender because much of it still runs through Contracts Finder. Between 1 July and 28 October 2026, 201 of the 206 new passenger transport opportunities on Contracts Finder came from councils. Across all sectors, councils posted 338 Contracts Finder opportunities in that period and marked 310 of them (92%) as suitable for small or medium-sized suppliers.

For the wider picture by sector, see our sector breakdown.

Find out who holds the contract now

The same transparency code makes councils in England publish details of every contract worth more than £5,000, every quarter. That includes the supplier's name, the value, the start, end and review dates, and whether the supplier is a small or medium-sized business.

That makes a council's contracts register a good place to start:

What councils usually ask for

Every tender is different, so read the documents. These come up often:

If you're in construction trades, our guide to finding construction tenders covers what those buyers ask for.

How to get council contracts, step by step

  1. Pick your councils. Start with your own council and its neighbours, where you can reach every job.
  2. Register once. Register free on the Central Digital Platform. A council in England or Wales must confirm your registration before it publishes the contract details notice for a contract worth £30,000 or more, including tax, so register before you bid. Register on each council's supplier portal as well, if it uses one.
  3. Read the contracts registers. Look for contracts in your trade that end in the next year, and note who holds them now.
  4. Set up alerts. Save a search on Find a Tender for your trade and region, and check councils' own websites for work under £30,000.
  5. Start with smaller contracts. When a council in England invites tenders for a contract below the procurement threshold, it can't run a separate pre-qualification stage first (Welsh councils, frameworks and larger works can differ), so there's less paperwork before you bid. Our guide to low value council contracts explains how that work is bought.
  6. Bid where you fit. Run a quick go/no-go check before you write anything. Our bid or no bid checklist takes a few minutes.

Which council tenders to skip

A bid takes time. The FSB found that it takes small businesses five days on average to prepare a bid. Before you start, check:

  1. Size. Can you deliver the whole contract from day one? A contract that would double your business is a big risk.
  2. Location. A county-wide contract may need travel you can't price in. Your own council and its neighbours are a good place to start.
  3. Time left. Under the Procurement Act, a larger open tender usually gets at least 25 days, and in some cases as few as 10. Smaller contracts only need a reasonable period.
  4. The incumbent. Check the contracts register to see who holds it now and for how long.
  5. Fit with your evidence. If you have no similar contract to point to, a smaller lot is a better first win.

For more on where to start, see our guide to tender help for small businesses.

Questions

How do I tender for council work?

Find the council's notice on Find a Tender, or on its own website for smaller work. Register free on the Central Digital Platform, then get the tender documents from the portal the notice names. Many councils use their own e-tendering system, and you usually have to register there too. Answer every question the documents set, in the format they ask for, and submit before the deadline. Late or non-compliant tenders can be rejected. For larger tenders, the Procurement Act lets the council disregard a tender that breaks a procedural requirement (section 19); for smaller ones, check the tender documents.

How do I win council tenders?

Bid for fewer, better-matched tenders. Check the pass or fail conditions first, pick contracts you could deliver comfortably in areas you already work, and answer exactly what the council scores. For a competitively tendered contract, the council must say how tenders will be assessed and, where there's more than one criterion, how important each one is. Our guide to winning public sector contracts goes step by step.

Get a shortlist of the council tenders worth your week

UK Tender Desk, from Your Evenings Ltd (that's us), is a one-off £149 diagnostic for small businesses in construction trades, training, transport, care, cleaning and catering. It's done for you. We look at live tenders on Find a Tender and Contracts Finder, pick up to 5 that suit a business your size, and tell you what to fix before you bid. It arrives by email within 5 working days of your form, with no call. If it's late, you don't pay. If no live tender fits, we say so and why.

See what the diagnostic looks like · Get your tender shortlist for £149

Sources

This guide summarises the official sources above. It isn't legal advice. Check the notice and tender documents for each contract.

Written with AI assistance by the Your Evenings team at Your Evenings Ltd. Last updated 31 October 2026.

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