The Guardian reported on 28 June that GBP1 in every GBP11 spent on UK public contractors goes to private equity-controlled firms. Its analysis, based on procurement data from Tussell, company filings, PitchBook market data and reported public information, found that almost GBP24.4bn of government money went to private equity-run firms in the year to April 2025. That is 8.8% of government contracts, implying a wider public-contractor base of about GBP277.3bn, with roughly GBP252.9bn going to other contractors.
UK public-contractor spending by ownership control. Source: Guardian analysis based on Tussell procurement data, 2026.
Those figures are not official Treasury statistics, and they should be read as a data investigation rather than a government classification. The Guardian said the work combined procurement records with corporate and market data to identify ownership. That distinction matters: public procurement portals such as Find a Tender and Contracts Finder can show who won a contract and for how much, while Companies House filings can help trace corporate control. They do not automatically tell a minister, council or voter how private-equity ownership changes operational risk.
The politics therefore sits in disclosure and resilience. If a care provider, technology supplier or outsourcing contractor is majority-owned by private equity, the public body buying the service may face risks that do not sit neatly in the contract price: refinancing pressure, dividend extraction, ownership changes, debt service and the possibility that a future sale matters more to owners than long-term service stability.
Private-capital owners can answer that this is too blunt. They can provide investment, professional management and the scale needed to deliver complex public contracts. A procurement system that excluded ownership models by category would risk reducing competition and raising costs. The more precise question is not whether private equity should be barred from public services, but whether government buyers price and monitor the risks that can come with that ownership.