How to tender for business with us

Where we advertise

All major contracts you can bid for are advertised in the South East Business Portal. This is the main website for all council tenders in the south east region, including the district and borough councils in the county.

The largest contracts are also advertised throughout the EU:

Smaller business opportunities are not necessarily advertised. Companies interested in supplying smaller quantities of goods, services or works should contact the relevant member of staff listed in the contracts register or the approved suppliers lists – see below.

For more about our advertising policy see our section below on the tendering process.

How to contact us about a business opportunity

If you have seen a contract advertised or want to become an approved supplier to the Council, please contact the appropriate member of staff as follows:

  • Advertised contracts
    please contact the member of staff listed in the advertisement.
  • Existing contracts
    see our section about current contracts.
  • Approved suppliers for major goods, services or works
    see our page about approved supplier lists.

The tendering process

Companies applying to do business with the Council must follow the appropriate procedure.

The higher the estimated value of the business opportunity, the stricter the procedure. The appropriate procedure is based on the the value of the contract:

Criteria for awarding contracts

We generally award tenders for contracts using a range of evaluation criteria including price and quality. This is known as the 'most economically advantageous tender'. This allows us to take account of commercial and non-commercial considerations. We make the evaluation criteria available to suppliers so that the award process is completely transparent.

We normally award contracts to a single supplier. If the contract is available to multiple suppliers, we clearly state this in the invitation to quote or tender.

Free government procurement course for business

'Winning the Contract' is a free online procurement course recently launched by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

The course has been designed to help businesses learn about public procurement and how to bid for public sector contracts. Find out more from Business Link:

Further information

If you have any questions or need more information, please contact the procurement team.