Westmorland and Furness Council has entered into a new contract with a Lancashire business to track energy usage across council owned buildings that includes council-maintained (community, voluntary controlled and foundation schools, public conveniences, libraries, day centres, residential care homes, six leisure centres, county and town halls and a hydrotherapy pool.
The council awarded the contract for the monitoring of energy data and provision of a data platform for buildings across the Westmorland and Furness corporate estate that council data shows is currently around 500 properties in the corporate estate of differing age, function and efficiency.
Following a tender process to allow the council to understand the energy performance of their buildings and identify areas of inefficiency. The council hopes it can then use this data to improve their overall energy efficiency.
The tender award comes as new research by business banking service money.co.uk has revealed that Westmorland and Furness Council has offered the most business tenders of any of 358 UK council in the last two years, per capita.
The council advertised 418 tenders between July 2023 and July 2025 With a population of 228,187, this means that the council offered 183 tenders per 100,000 residents – the highest rate in the UK.
Neighbouring Cumberland Council, with a slightly higher population of 276,876, offered 174 tenders per 100,00 residents, which is the third highest in the UK.
Both councils came into existence in April 2023 and have since had to consolidate and replace contracts awarded by the former county councils and Distrcit councils they replaced.
A spokesperson for Westmorland and Furness Council said: “Commissioned projects cover the wide breadth of services the council is responsible for.”
The council is responsible for services across the district including highway, adult social care services, schools, economic development and regeneration although some of these could from next year fall under the responsibility of a new combined authority and Cumbria Mayor is both Westmorland and Furness council and Cumberland Council vote later this month to government plans for devolution in Cumbria.
All contracts awarded by the council must adhere to statutory requirements of best value for money and transparency with most of the councils tenders advertised on a UK wide tender website alongside other councils and government agencies.
The council also tenders in collaboration with Cumberland Council with a current joint tender inviting organisations to bid to support a new Cumbria-wide scheme that will help people with complex needs get into employment.
Connect to Work is a new government-funded programme to break down barriers to employment.
Cumberland Council and Westmorland and Furness Council are collaborating through Enterprising Cumbria on the new initiative which is set to launch in January 2026.
The Cumbria Connect to Work Invitation to Tender has now been published and is open for submissions via the tender portal used by the councils.
Interested parties can now view and bid for the opportunity through the procurement portal:
The Chest: Opportunity ID on The Chest DN788668
Find a Tender: https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/051891-2025?origin=Dashboard
Submission Deadline: Monday 29 September 2025
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