Watford: what its committee papers say about buying, and who supplies it.
Watford is a district council in the East of England. We hold 50 of its award notices, 3 contracts due to end within 18 months, and 2 committee papers from the last 120 days that talk about buying. 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 Watford's papers every weeknight. A value is published on 32 of those 50 award notices, so the total is a floor, not the council's spend.
Next committee meetings
The next 5 scheduled meetings at Watford, 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 |
|---|---|
| 23 Sep 2026 | Overview and Scrutiny Committee |
| 30 Sep 2026 | Audit Committee |
| 5 Oct 2026 | Cabinet |
| 6 Oct 2026 | Development Management Committee |
| 7 Oct 2026 | Major Projects Forum |
Biggest suppliers
Ranked by total awarded value across every Watford 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sports and Leisure Management Ltd | £63.0m | 2 |
| Ansco Music Club Ltd | £37.5m | 2 |
| E.ON Energy Solutions Limited | £10.7m | 2 |
| OVO Energy Solutions Ltd | £10.7m | 2 |
| Warmworks Scotland LLP | £10.7m | 2 |
Largest awards of the last 12 months
The biggest awards Watford 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| GB-Watford: Museum Fit Out Works | Marcon Fit-out Ltd | £1.5m | Restricted |
| Bike Share Scheme VEAT Notice | Smidsy Ltd T/A Beryl | £254,275 | Other |
| Bike Share Scheme VEAT Notice | Smidsy Ltd T/A Beryl | £254,275 | Other |
| Multifunctional Print Devices and Associated Digital Transformation Solutions | Canon (UK) Limited | £50,845 | Other |
| Personal Safety Devices | Soloprotect Limited | £35,000 | Other |
How the money is awarded
33% of Watford's awarded value went through open competition and 0% was awarded directly. A further 67% 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.
- Other/Unspecified 67% (£102m)
- Competed 33% (£50.5m)
- Direct 0% (not stated)
Contracts expiring within 18 months
The 3 largest by value on record for Watford, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Apr 2027 | 6 | Retrofit Home (Domestic) Energy Efficiency Works - Managing Agents4 award notices, shown once | framework, 4 suppliers | £42.9m |
| 2 Feb 2028 | 16 | GB-Watford: Museum Fit Out Works | Marcon Fit-out Ltd | £1.5m |
| 31 Aug 2027 | 11 | Nurse Led Absence Management Service | Goodshape | £600,000 |
Procurement radar
Committee papers Watford published in the last four months whose title uses the language of buying: a tender, an award, an extension, a gateway report, a waiver, or a procurement strategy, policy or performance report. It is a title match, so the odd paper lands here on a word rather than a decision.
| Meeting | Paper | Committee |
|---|---|---|
| 15 Sep 2026 | Budget Planning Framework 2027/28To consider and note the 2027/28 Budget Planning Framework, outline timetable at Appendix 1 and Budget Principles at Appendix 2 and to make recommendations to Cabinet. | Finance Scrutiny Committee |
Showing the 1 strongest matches of 2. This is the raw feed, not the brief: a subscriber gets the handful that match their business, scored, with the so-what written out. Start a free trial.
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 Watford 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 Watford. 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 Watford's own published papers, at https://watford.moderngov.co.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 Watford'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.