G-Cloud purchases fell by almost a quarter in February over the previous month, government data reveal.

Figures released by the Cabinet Office show that purchases in the local authority category, which includes councils, housing associations and other local public bodies, fell from £1.67m in January to £1.27m.

The fall follows two months of rises within the category, but sales have now slumped to just half of the £2.53m sales recorded in April 2015.

Local government made 162 individual purchases during the month, down from 206 the previous month.

The largest number of purchases in the category again came from Bristol City Council, which spent £226,000 on 31 purchases.

The biggest value purchase by local government in February was by Peterborough City Council, which spent £70,000 on specialist cloud services from supplier Arcus Global.

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Large suppliers made 37 purchases, worth £252,000, in the category, meaning that small and medium enterprises made up 77% of sales by volume and 80% by value.

This is a far higher share than the overall cumulative total sales for government.

Since the G-Cloud was launched, 52% of total sales by value and 61% by volume have been awarded to SMEs.