Figures released today by the Government Digital Service show that cumulative sales through the framework now stand at £18.75m, up from £16m at the end of August.

During the month, 135 purchases were made in the local government category, which includes local authorities, standalone companies owned by councils as well as housing associations.

Overall, cumulative sales to the wider public sector now stand at £314.2m, with 53% by value and 61% by volume awarded to small and medium enterprises.

During the month, 28 councils made purchases through G-Cloud, along with one standalone company and four housing associations, as well as the London Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime.

The largest September purchase by a local authority was for £91,520 by Peterborough City Council, which agreed a contract for website redevelopment with specialist cloud services supplier Arus Global.

London Borough of Hounslow made the largest number of local authority G-Cloud purchases last month - 51 contracts totalling £356,058.

Speaking yesterday at the 2014 Socitm annual conference, Tony Singleton, director of the digital commercial programme at the Government Digital Service, said that a survey carried out by central government revealed that 29 suppliers which responded had created 256 jobs thanks to the framework.

He said: “This may not sound much but most were SMEs and in many cases the firms doubled their workforces.”