Bowmer & Kirkland was the Department for Education’s (DfE) highest paid construction company for the fourth year in a row, Construction News can reveal.
Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that the Derbyshire-headquartered firm was paid £320.8m in the 2024/25 financial year – £57m ahead of the next-placed company.
The total was up slightly from the £313.5m it earned in the 2023/24 financial year, and a significant increase on the £197m it was paid in 2022/23.
Builds it completed in the period included the £45m River Academy in Reading, Berkshire, the £38m West Coventry Academy and the £12m Bosvena SEMH School in Bodmin, Cornwall. The latter two were procured through the department’s MMC framework.
Bowmer & Kirkland, which was ranked the 18th largest firm in the UK in the 2024 CN100, has topped every table of DfE spending since 2021/22.
Bam was in second place, for the third year running, earning £263.8m in 2024/25. Its projects included the new Seaton Delaval School. It received just £73,731 more than third-placed Kier.
ISG, which was eighth in 2023/24, was the 11th biggest recipient of DfE cash in 2024/25 despite going into administration less than halfway through the financial year.
| DfE contractor spend 2024/25 | ||
| Position | Supplier name | Total paid |
| 1 | Bowmer & Kirkland | 320,81 |
| 2 | Bam | 263.79 |
| 3 | Kier | 263.72 |
| 4 | Tilbury Douglas | 162.16 |
| 5 | Wates | 135.17 |
| 6 | Morgan Sindall | 132.56 |
| 7 | Galliford Try | 105.23 |
| 8 | Reds10 | 57.42 |
| 9 | Willmott Dixon | 49.44 |
| 10 | Portakabin | 39.25 |
| 11 | ISG | 26.30 |
| 12 | Bouygues UK | 17.37 |
| 13 | McAvoy | 15.52 |
| 14 | Baxall Construction | 14.18 |
| 15 | Henry Boot Construction | 10.83 |
| 16 | Wernick | 8.55 |
| 17 | Conlon Construction | 8.07 |
| 18 | Algeco | 6.75 |
| 19 | Rayner Rowen | 4.99 |
| 20 | Vinci UK | 4.63 |
In 2024/25, the department continued to try and deal with the fallout of the RAAC crisis, spending a combined £112m with four modular specialists, with just over half of the total going to Reds10. Portakabin, Wernick and Algeco shared the rest.
In 2023/24 it spent a total of £162m with the same firms, as well as the now-defunct Spatial Initiative.
Tilbury Douglas was the biggest climber on the latest list, rising to fourth place with £162m compared to seventh with a £79m receipt in the prior year.
A new £15.4bn construction framework called CF25 is due to begin in January, replacing the £7bn CF21 framework, which began in 2022.
It will cover new-build and refurbishment projects for schools, colleges and universities, as well as ancillary community facilities. Work will be procured under 10 regional lots, split by project value and location.
| DfE contractor spend 2023/24 | ||
| Position | Supplier name | Total paid (£m) |
| 1 | Bowmer & Kirkland | 313.45 |
| 2 | Bam | 176.72 |
| 3 | Kier | 167.94 |
| 4 | Wates | 185.90 |
| 5 | Morgan Sindall | 99.80 |
| 6 | Galliford Try | 96.00 |
| 7 | Tilbury Douglas | 78.57 |
| 8 | ISG | 71.47 |
| 9 | Reds10 | 55.39 |
| 10 | Willmott Dixon | 50.87 |
| 11 | McAvoy | 36.34 |
| 12 | Algeco | 34.71 |
| 13 | Portakabin | 29.98 |
| 14 | Baxall Construction | 7.88 |
| 15 | Bouygues UK | 5.90 |
| 16 | T & B | 5.74 |
| 17 | Henry Boot Construction | 5.21 |
| 18 | Spatial Initiative | 5.16 |
