Small businesses supported by Enterprise Nation’s Supply Connect programme have won more than £3.5m worth of public sector and supplier contracts since it launched a year ago, as direct public sector spending with SMEs reached a six-year high.

The contracts ranged in value from five-figure local authority work to six-figure, multi-year services deals with public sector suppliers, according to the programme. Enterprise Nation, a community of small businesses and advisers, describes Supply Connect as a two-year national pilot delivered with Newable and backed by JPMorganChase, running until March 2027.

Alex Williams thought winning public contracts would help expand his cleaning company, Tiger Cleaning, but found his tenders were consistently being rejected. The business did not hold the right accreditations.

Advisers on the programme helped him obtain an ISO 9001 quality standard certification and Constructionline Gold, a construction industry accreditation.

Less than a year later, Tiger Cleaning has won four tenders valued at between five and six figures each. They include a window cleaning contract connected with the HS2 rail line, and the company has also won work connected with businesses such as Balfour Beatty, Amazon, Holland & Holland and Gama Healthcare.

“Once we received these accreditations, that opened up the doors,” Williams said. “It is a couple of thousands for each [accreditation]. Obviously, for an SME, it does add up to quite a lot. But you won’t be able to get your foot in the door unless you have those certifications and accreditations.”

Jayne Unalkat (Pictured), founder of the Be Social Consultancy, also used the programme. She wanted marketing work in the public sector but was unsure how to approach the Find a Tender platform.

“It was a bit intimidating at first, looking at the whole process of the tenders. It can come across as quite complicated,” Unalkat said.

A Supply Connect adviser helped her break down and understand the language used in tenders. Her Deeside-based business has since won two contracts on the Business Support Consultancy Panel, delivering marketing support and webinars to SMEs across Wales.

“Now I have the confidence to apply for these big tenders and potentially compete with bigger agencies. It has opened my eyes to this world of opportunity with the public sector,” Unalkat said.

Direct public sector spending with SMEs reached £45.2bn in 2025, up from £43.9bn in 2024 and £32.3bn in 2020, according to the British Chambers of Commerce and Tussell’s SME Procurement Tracker 2026.

The tracker found the 2025 figure represented 21 per cent of all direct procurement. Local government spent the most with SMEs, at £29.1bn or 34 per cent of its total, while central government spent £6.4bn, or 10 per cent, according to Tussell.

John Healey, the chancellor, has said he wants public procurement to back British businesses and goods. This forms part of a wider attempt to dismantle barriers that have prevented smaller businesses from winning government contracts, through reforms under legislation brought into effect in 2025.

That legislation, the Procurement Act, came into force in February 2025 alongside new guidance for public sector buyers on directing more spending to smaller firms.

The Cabinet Office said in August that it is doubling the credit given to companies bidding for central government contracts that provide “social value” through local employment, under its revised social value model. It is also scrapping rewards for net zero and diversity.

Maggie Berry, the SME procurement lead at Enterprise Nation, said the effect of the changes would build over time.

“These changes are bedding in now, but a lot of the benefits will be felt in the years to come. Lots of small businesses haven’t even thought about the big doors that they could knock on within the public sector,” Berry said.

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