How Common Are 100 Million Pound Public Contracts Really

New Civil Engineer reported this week that a national contractor has been appointed by the department to deliver the £176m Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme, described by the outlet as "one of the most significant flood defence projects in England". Awards at that scale grab attention, and understandably so. But how unusual is a nine figure public contract, really? Our data suggests these deals are more common than the headlines imply.

Nine figure contracts are not as rare as they look

According to KimonBids analysis of published notices, 1,011 contracts were advertised at £100m or more in the 12 months to 15 September 2026. That is across Contracts Finder, Find a Tender, Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and Tenders Electronic Daily. A £176m project sits comfortably inside that group rather than standing alone.

That count comes with important caveats:

• The advertised value is a contract ceiling, not money paid. A framework ceiling can be very large while little of it is ever called off.
• Notices that publish no value cannot be counted, so 1,011 is a floor rather than a complete list.
• A notice published by two sources is counted once, so there is no double counting between portals.

In other words, the true number of very large opportunities is likely higher still, because so many notices leave the value blank. If you want to understand why a headline number rarely equals actual spend, our explainer on how spend data differs from tender notices is a useful starting point.

What the typical contract actually looks like

The gap between the mega projects and everyday public procurement is stark. The median advertised contract value over the last 90 days was £165k. That is the middle value among notices that stated a figure at all, over the period from 17 June 2026 to 15 September 2026.

That single comparison tells SMEs something reassuring. For every £176m scheme, there are large numbers of contracts advertised at a fraction of that size, well within reach of smaller suppliers. Most notices do not state a value, so the £165k median reflects only those that do, and stated values come mostly from Contracts Finder and Find a Tender. Even so, it underlines that the typical opportunity is nothing like a nine figure flood defence programme.

Big schemes still matter to smaller firms, of course. Major works usually flow down to a supply chain of specialists, so it is worth understanding how you might reach that work as a subcontractor rather than only chasing the prime contract. Large projects also tend to be procured well in advance through pipeline notices, which give early sight of what is coming.

How SMEs should read this

The practical takeaway is about calibration. A single striking number in a news story is not the whole market. To size the opportunity that fits your business, look at the spread of advertised values, filter by the work you actually do, and treat ceilings with caution.

Start with the basics of where these notices appear and how to search them. Our guide to finding government contracts as an SME walks through the main portals, and reading buyer intentions early can put you ahead of a formal tender.

The £176m Oxford scheme is a genuine flagship. But sitting behind it are hundreds of other large contracts, and thousands of smaller ones, most of which never make the news. For suppliers, the money in the market is far broader than any one headline suggests.