Doing business with Cumberland Council

We buy from external suppliers to provide a wide range of commercial opportunities.

This guide explains how to go about trading with the council by setting out:

• policies and procedures the council has to follow
• how to find out about business opportunities
• what the council is looking for
• processes that suppliers have to follow
• useful contact details.

It is intended to enable you to feel confident in approaching Cumberland Council for business and to enable you to maximise your opportunity to obtain business from us.

We buy goods, work and services from a range of suppliers. Contracts vary from small one-off purchases to large contracts to provide services on behalf of the council. 

We aim to help companies and organisations who wish to supply us with goods or services or carry out works on our behalf. We encourage competition and welcome bids from new and established suppliers, especially from local small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), third sector organisations, and social enterprises.

Find out about our procurement process.

The benefits of working with us

We are committed to using procurement to contribute to the regeneration of the area. By working with you we will continue to learn how to make it easier for organisations to do business with us.

We:

• include social value to our procurement activity; this may enhance your reputation in the community and wider business sector
• are fair, non-discriminatory, transparent and professional
• are a long-established organisation, with professionally qualified staff
• are prompt to pay invoices, we pay on time