Microsoft Dominates Council IT Spending Amid Financial Distress
Newham Council in London needed £32m of savings as it entered 2025-26. To achieve this, it applied for and secured government permission to raise council tax above the legal cap of 4.99% to 8.99%. Meanwhile, its Microsoft bill increased by 80.5% over three years, from £2.13m to £3.85m.
Computer Weekly analyzed Freedom of Information (FoI) responses from 37 councils and found that 32 had never run a competitive procurement in which an alternative platform could have won. Competition only took place between resellers of the identical Microsoft product, not between Microsoft and a competitive platform.
The analysis showed that for up to £400m of budget spent, Microsoft was the default answer. This occurs as the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) decides whether to designate Microsoft with strategic market status (SMS) under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act.