B2G stands for Business-to-Government. It is the model where private companies sell goods or services to public-sector buyers: local councils, NHS Trusts, state schools, universities, MoD, prisons, and central government departments.
The UK public sector spends roughly £300 billion a year with private suppliers. The government has a standing target of spending £1 in every £3 with SMEs. The market is real, the budgets are committed, and the buying decisions are governed by transparent rules under the Procurement Act 2023 (live since 24 February 2025).
UK B2G market at a glance
Six numbers and frameworks every SME should know before deciding whether to chase public-sector revenue.
Market size
UK public-sector procurement spend
~£300bn
Across central government, local authorities, NHS, schools, MoD, and arms-length bodies. Largest single buyer of goods and services in the country.
gov.uk procurement dataSME spend target
Standing government commitment
33% (£1 in £3)
Mission to direct one third of government spend to SMEs, either directly or through prime supply chains. Real budget, not rhetoric.
Procurement Act 2023
Replaces 2015 PCR + UCR + CCR + DSPCR
Live
New SQ structure, "most-advantageous-tender" framework, transparency obligations, and abnormally-low-tender rejection mechanics.
legislation.gov.ukPPN 002
Social Value Model
10% weighting
Mandatory minimum on central government tenders. Most councils and NHS Trusts now match or exceed.
gov.uk publicationFind a Tender Service (FTS)
Above-threshold tenders
All > £139k
All UK above-threshold public contracts publish here. Replaced OJEU after Brexit. Daily new opportunities.
find-tender.service.gov.ukContracts Finder
Below-threshold UK Government contracts
£12k – £139k
Smaller SME-friendly contracts. Often the right entry point for a first B2G win without primes in the way.
contracts-finder.service.gov.ukIf you already know B2B and want a side-by-side breakdown, see B2B vs B2G: what changes when you sell to government. To see exactly what kinds of contracts UK SMEs win every day, see 5 real-world examples of UK B2G contracts.
What's in this guide¶
- What B2G actually means (and what it is not)
- Why SMEs should care (4 structural advantages)
- How UK public procurement actually works (the SQ → ITT → award flow)
- The 6-step playbook to break into B2G
- See it in CleanTender (product walkthrough)
- B2G in soft FM (cleaning, security, grounds, waste, catering)
Why SMEs should care about B2G¶
Many small businesses skip the public sector because they assume the paperwork is impossible. The structural advantages, once you have shipped one bid, are hard to find elsewhere.
| Advantage | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Prompt payment protection | UK government bound by the Prompt Payment Code; major contracts require 30-day terms paid through the supply chain. No collection-letter relationship management. |
| Long-term stability | Typical contract term is 3-5 years with extension options. One win covers a baseline of recurring revenue. |
| Recession resilience | Hospitals, schools, councils, and prisons need cleaning, security, catering, grounds, and waste services through every economic cycle. |
| Transparent feedback on losses | The standstill letter (mandatory under Procurement Act 2023) breaks down exactly how your bid scored against the winner. You learn what to fix next time. |
Four structural advantages of UK B2G revenue versus private-sector contracts.
How UK public procurement actually works¶
Selling to a private business can be as fast as a single phone call. UK B2G procurement is regulated by the Procurement Act 2023 and runs through a defined sequence of stages, every one of which is auditable.
- Pre-market engagement (optional): the buyer publishes a Pipeline Notice or runs an early-market event so suppliers can flag capacity, ask questions, and shape the spec. Worth attending if you can.
- Tender publication: the buyer publishes the contract on Find a Tender Service (above £139k) or Contracts Finder (£12k-£139k). The clock starts on submission deadlines.
- Selection Questionnaire (SQ): structured pass/fail evidence on insurance, financial standing, ISO certifications, modern slavery, equal opportunities. Usually graded as suitable / not suitable rather than scored.
- Invitation to Tender (ITT): the scored bid. Method statements, social value, pricing, and any sector-specific technical questions. Each section has a published weighting.
- Standstill period: 8-day mandatory pause between award decision and contract signature so unsuccessful bidders can challenge. The standstill letter explains your scores.
- Award and contract: the winning supplier signs and starts mobilisation. KPI reporting begins from day one of contract delivery.
The 6-step playbook to break into B2G
Run this in order before chasing your first UK public-sector tender. Each step closes a hole that loses bids at SQ or wastes a bid-week on a contract you were never going to win. Tool-agnostic; works whether you use CleanTender or do it manually.
Step 1· Day 1
Pick your sector lane and stick to it
Decide whether you bid cleaning, security, grounds, waste, catering, or another vertical. Buyers score sector experience heavily; bids that read like "we do anything" lose to ones that read like "we do this and only this".
Step 2· Week 1
Build the SQ evidence pack once
Insurances at the right level (PL £5-10m, EL £10m), latest accounts, ISO 9001 if held, ISO 14001 increasingly required, equality + modern slavery + environmental policies, SSIP-recognised certificate (CHAS or SafeContractor). Reuse on every bid.
Step 3· Week 1
Register on Find a Tender Service and Contracts Finder
FTS for above-threshold (>£139k), Contracts Finder for below-threshold (£12k-£139k). Set saved searches with sector keywords and your geography. Review weekly, flag fit candidates inside 48 hours.
Step 4· Week 2
Decide on a fit-scoring approach
You will see far more tenders than you can bid. Score each on sector match, geography, scale, and compliance gap. Bid only the 8/10 fits. Bidding everything kills win rate and morale.
Step 5· Week 3
Quantify your social value commitments
PPN 002 sets 10% minimum weighting on central government tenders from 1 October 2025. Build a library of dated, numerical commitments aligned to the five themes (jobs, growth, wellbeing, environment, equal opportunity). Reuse and tune.
Step 6· Week 4-6
Bid your first contract in your local geography
Aim for a contract value of £100k-£300k and a buyer within 30 minutes of your operational base. Local council frameworks are the most forgiving entry point. First-bid completion is the win, even if you do not place.
See it in CleanTender (product walkthrough)¶
The same six-step playbook above, automated end-to-end inside CleanTender. Each step takes seconds to minutes instead of days.
From sector setup to a submitted bid in the time it used to take to read a single tender pack.
Step 1· 10 minutes
Build your soft FM company profile
Set your sector (cleaning, security, grounds, waste, or catering), your service regions, ISO certifications, accreditations (CHAS, SafeContractor, SIA ACS, BICSc, NPTC, FHRS), insurance levels, turnover, and operative count. CleanTender uses this to fit-score every live tender against your real capability so you only see the ones you can win.
Profile setup defines what you are bid-ready for Step 2· 5 minutes daily
Open the live UK public-sector feed
Every UK council, NHS Trust, school, MoD, university, and housing-association soft-FM tender, in one feed. Pre-filtered to your sector and geography. No false positives, no manual portal-trawling across FTS, Contracts Finder, and dozens of council e-procurement portals.
Live feed of in-scope tenders, fit-scored Step 3· Daily digest
Get email alerts for new in-scope tenders
New tenders matching your profile land in your inbox the day they publish. CleanTender batches them into a daily digest so you do not get notification fatigue, and links straight back to the in-app fit score.
Daily alerts for new in-scope tenders Step 4· 30 seconds
Run a fit-score evaluation on a target tender
One click runs a CleanTender Evaluation against the tender pack: scope match, geography fit, scale fit, compliance gap, and a plain-English win probability. Stops you bidding contracts you were never going to win.
Fit-score and win-probability before you commit a weekend Step 5· 1 minute
Spot compliance gaps before you start drafting
CleanTender runs a named compliance check against the tender pack: ISO 9001, ISO 14001, sector accreditations, SSIP, social value plan, and any sector-specific requirements (BICSc, SIA ACS, FHRS, NPTC, etc). Anything missing is flagged before you sink hours into a bid that auto-fails at SQ.
Compliance gaps surfaced before drafting Step 6· 2 minutes generation
Generate a full SQ + method-statement draft
CleanTender drafts a complete Standard Selection Questionnaire response using your profile data and the tender requirements: declaration block, company overview, contract experience, quality, training, COSHH, social value, H&S, insurance schedule. All ten sections, in one pass.
Full SQ draft generated in minutes, not days Step 7· Half a day
Refine, add evidence, and submit
Tune the draft, drop in named referees and certificate numbers, layer your quantified social value commitments, and submit through the buyer's portal. Most users compress a 30-60 hour first bid to 8-12 hours of focused review.
Step 8· Ongoing
Track outcomes and improve
Every bid logs in CleanTender with status, score, and (after standstill) the buyer's feedback. Use the standstill data to tune your next bid. Win rate compounds; first-bid completion is the only thing standing between you and a public-sector revenue line.
B2G in soft FM (the most accessible entry point)¶
Soft FM (cleaning, security, grounds maintenance, waste management, catering) is one of the most accessible B2G entry points for UK SMEs. The scope is recurring, the contracts are sized for SMEs, and the compliance gates are clearer than in IT or construction.
If your business sits in one of these sectors, the win-focused playbooks here give you the regulatory, scoring, and pricing detail you need: cleaning, security, grounds maintenance, waste management, and catering. For the universal new-business reality check, see can a new business win a UK government tender.
Sources
- Procurement Act 2023 (legislation.gov.uk) · Live since 24 February 2025; replaces PCR 2015 and other regimes
- PPN 002 Social Value Model (Cabinet Office) · Mandatory from 1 October 2025; 10% minimum social value weighting on central government tenders
- Find a Tender Service · All UK above-threshold (>£139k) public-sector contracts publish here
- Contracts Finder · Below-threshold UK Government contracts (£12k-£139k); often the SME entry point
- Cabinet Office SME Action Plan · Standing 33% target for SME share of central government spend
- Procurement Policy Notes (gov.uk) · Live PPN library covering social value, SME engagement, climate, modern slavery, and more
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
- B2G stands for Business-to-Government. It is the business model where private companies sell goods or services to public-sector buyers: local councils, NHS Trusts, state schools, universities, central government departments, MoD, prisons, and arms-length bodies. In the UK, the B2G market is worth roughly £300 billion a year and is governed by the Procurement Act 2023, which has been live since 24 February 2025. Compare that with B2B (business-to-business, selling to private companies) and B2C (business-to-consumer, selling to individuals).
- UK public-sector procurement spend is roughly £300 billion a year across central government, local authorities, NHS Trusts, schools, MoD, and arms-length bodies. The government has a standing target of spending £1 in every £3 (33%) with SMEs, either directly or through prime supply chains. That is a real, mandated budget commitment, not rhetoric. Above-threshold tenders (>£139k) publish on Find a Tender Service; below-threshold central government contracts (£12k-£139k) publish on Contracts Finder; many local authorities also use their own e-procurement portals.
- Three primary feeds cover most UK public-sector opportunities. Find a Tender Service (find-tender.service.gov.uk) carries every above-threshold UK contract (>£139k for goods/services, higher for works). Contracts Finder (contractsfinder.service.gov.uk) carries central government below-threshold contracts (£12k-£139k). Many local authorities, NHS Trusts, and consortia also use sector portals (YPO, ESPO, NEPO, CCS, NHS Supply Chain, TUCO for catering). Set saved searches with sector keywords (e.g. "manned guarding", "grounds maintenance", "cleaning services") plus your geography and review weekly. CleanTender consolidates the soft FM cuts of these feeds into one daily view.
- Two stages of a typical UK public-sector procurement. The Selection Questionnaire (SQ) is a pass/fail gate: do you have the required insurance levels, the right ISO certifications, modern slavery and equal opportunities policies, the financial standing to deliver, no relevant convictions? The SQ is usually graded as suitable / not suitable rather than scored. The Invitation to Tender (ITT) is the scored bid for SQ-approved suppliers: method statements, technical capability, social value, and pricing, each section with a published weighting. Build the SQ evidence pack once and reuse on every bid; tune the ITT response to each contract's specific scope and scoring matrix.
- Social value is the additional economic, social, and environmental benefit a supplier delivers above and beyond the contract scope itself: local jobs created, apprenticeships, carbon emissions reduced, support for disadvantaged groups, community partnerships. Under the Social Value Act 2012 and PPN 002 (Social Value Model, mandatory from 1 October 2025), a minimum of 10% of the bid score on UK central government tenders must be allocated to social value, with most councils and NHS Trusts now matching or exceeding that. The five themes are jobs, growth, wellbeing, environment, and equal opportunity. Quantified, dated commitments score 8-9/10. Generic "we support local communities" copy scores 4/10.
- Yes, and the structural barriers are lower than most SMEs assume. The UK government has a standing target of spending £1 in every £3 with SMEs, either directly or through prime supply chains. Below-threshold contracts on Contracts Finder (£12k-£139k) are explicitly SME-friendly entry points. Local council frameworks for soft FM (cleaning, security, grounds, waste, catering) regularly award lots to firms with turnover under £1m. The skills you need are: an SQ evidence pack lined up once and reused, ISO 9001 (and increasingly ISO 14001) in motion, a documented social value plan, and the discipline to bid only the contracts you genuinely fit. The bid-completion rate for first-time SME bidders is what trips most people up; aim to ship one bid per month and refine until you place.