Track the business activity and commercial plans of Hull and East Yorkshire Combined Authority — identify tender and future spending opportunities before they reach the market, follow cabinet and committee decisions, and understand the council’s priorities, with intelligence extracted from 15 analysed meetings.
Meetings analysed15
Procurement opportunities6
Pressures tracked10
Estimated pipeline value£317m–£372m
Hull and East Yorkshire Combined Authority Procurement Intelligence | QuorumInsight
Active procurement topics
Over the last 12 months, the most frequently discussed commercial topics in this council's meetings have been Economic Development & Business Support (27 mentions, easing), Professional Services (18 mentions, easing), Highways & Transport (15 mentions, easing) and Construction & Building Works (10 mentions, easing).
Commercial signals extracted from recent Hull and East Yorkshire Combined Authority meetings — approvals, budget decisions and early procurement discussions, before a tender is published.
The board agreed in principle to initiate procurement of a suitable service provider to develop the pay and grading framework, but with final contract approval returning to the board. Members specifically wanted transparency and market testing via an established framework and mini-tender process. This is the clearest procurement opportunity in the meeting.
“I would like to bring back to this board to discuss who the service provider will be to develop the paying framework because that will cost this person money. Well, and I very much like that come back to the board and not be as delegated to the chief to the finance officer and I'…”
The board approved a delegation model for the 2026/27 bus grant funding to give early certainty to councils and maintain supported services while DfT allocations remain delayed. The model continues the 2025/26 approach, delegates operational delivery under section 101 of the Local Government Act, uses the transport officer group for governance, and supports a more consistent Hull and East Yorkshire branding and communication approach.
“We're proposing this paper uh to the board today so we can manage the department for transport's first grant for 2026 2027. You may remember that at the last board meeting we we we spoke about the fact that some of the funding from Department of Transport is particularly late thi…”
The combined authority submitted renewable energy grant applications for council sites and agreed to proceed with governance and delegation arrangements while awaiting government outcome. The projects focus on solar generation and battery storage, with substantial long-term energy bill savings.
“So by the end of March 2026, this is one of the first instances of Great British Energy making funding available to the public sector and it's very much intentioned as them setting out the store that they want to work with combined authorities going forward. They want this to be…”
The board approved allocation of member portfolios for the 2025/26 municipal year, aligning responsibilities to the combined authority’s devolved functions. The mayor retains an overarching and fit-and-healthy portfolio, while named councillors take investment, transport, skills, and housing portfolios, with a commitment to keep the structure under regular review.
“This report agenda item six asks the board to approve uh both the member portfolios for the current municipal year and also the allocation of those uh portfolios. The detail of them are set out in the appendix to the report but they are intended to align with the devolved functio…”
A major gap identified was the absence of a dedicated small and micro-business strategy despite SMEs making up 98% of private sector enterprises. Members argued the local growth plan needs specific support, productivity, and high-street measures for SMEs, rather than focusing mainly on large industrial clusters.
“there is a section in there that talks about providing integrated business support encouraging new startups and entrepreneurialism. And it talks about and this is a staggering stat given that it's not mentioned at all in this local growth plan. The Hollanese Yorkshire economy is…”
Members agreed the overarching game plan should explicitly include deprivation and isolation as priority measures alongside employment, education, transport, housing and health. This affects future commissioning because support programmes and investment decisions will need to target both deprived and isolated communities, not just high-growth areas.
“Thank you very much members. And then the second um element here was that one of the discussions we had was about the community funds specifically being targeted at areas of deprivation and Mayor Campbell went into some detail about why that reasoning had been put forward and pri…”
The meeting focused on setting up the new Humber Growth Board, confirming membership and terms of reference, and aligning the board’s work with the wider Humber economic strategy and local growth plans. Members discussed investment priorities such as transport connectivity, freight, skills, energy, advanced manufacturing, ports and logistics, and place-based regeneration. There was also a substantive discussion on joint innovation funding bids with UKRI, including the £30 million LIFT-style programme with Teesside and a separate potential £20 million innovation programme, plus agreement that future agendas should tackle practical cross-border delivery issues and evidence of impact.
The meeting focused on governance appointments, transport policy and future investment planning. Members discussed board memberships and substitutes, the need to clarify arrangements for a deputy mayor, transport initiatives including bus partnerships and future fare support, and a strong pipeline of investment opportunities linked to the local growth plan and Homes England. There was also significant scrutiny of recruitment spend, interim leadership costs, and community funding such as the Goole Boxing Club project.
The meeting focused on the Humber local growth strategy, governance arrangements for the new joint mayoral growth board, transport transition powers, and a significant short-term funding decision for employment and business support providers after the end of UK Shared Prosperity funding. Members also discussed merging skills and business advisory structures, with an emphasis on aligning boards, delivery groups, and local growth priorities. Several items were framed as enabling future procurement, commissioning, and funding allocations rather than immediate tender awards.
The board discussed major transport reform, including active travel funding, bus integration and potential franchising, and approval in principle for transfer of public transport functions in 2026-27. It also approved a new set of HR policies, revised governance assurance arrangements, and delegated decision-making for the adult skills fund, alongside a live recruitment process for senior roles. A recurring theme was balancing scrutiny, transparency and commercial sensitivity, especially around exempt papers, budgets and investment activity.
The committee discussed internal audit work on financial resilience, including data analytics to understand spend trends and an advisory tool shared with officers. Members also reviewed assurance mapping, a decision-making/compliance audit, the authority’s developing workforce structure and recruitment timetable, and the latest finance and treasury position showing a projected revenue surplus and unspent investment funds being carried forward. Governance papers on constitutional review and committee arrangements were also considered, alongside concerns about appointment of an independent chair and member composition.
The board covered several procurement- and governance-relevant decisions: adoption of a pay and grading framework, approval of a new senior staffing structure and recruitment plan, a bus grant delegation model for 2026/27, and a revised investment governance framework. Members also discussed a £30m local growth plan fund, a possible optional overnight levy for tourism, and covenant commitments on armed forces, care leavers and white ribbon. A budget update highlighted an unallocated £5.7m investment programme, forecast revenue surplus, and plans to carry forward unspent investment funding.