Department for Education’s highest paid contractors revealed

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.

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.