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Everything You Need To Know When Applying for Architectural Tenders

Posted on by John Hudson

A guide to architectural tenders

(Updated May 2022)

In this blog, we go through everything you need to know when applying for architectural tenders.

What is an architectural tender?

Architectural tenders are an invitation to submit a bid in an attempt to be part of a project.

Applying for architectural tenders can seem intimidating at first for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). Especially as the government’s definition of an SME excludes over 70 per cent of UK architecture firms. However, the government is making more of an effort in order to combat this issue. Their target is to spend £1 in every £3 with SME businesses, so don’t write off applying for that tender just yet. They want to guarantee the growth of SMEs, giving smaller companies a chance at winning. This means there has never been a better time to start bidding on tenders. Over the years, construction has continued to be the largest public sector expenditure by volume and value.

There are a number of things to consider when applying for architectural tenders. Luckily, we’ve made a list of the eight most important, so you don’t have to.

  1. Typical Weightings

The typical weighting of an architectural tender is roughly 70% quality and 30% cost. Although in 2018, via the Mayor of London’s Architecture, Design and Urbanism Panel (ADUP), there was a new section added. The weighting was of 70% quality, 25% cost and 5% equality, diversity and inclusion. This change appeared in some tenders, specifically in London, so it’s something to consider when looking into applying for tenders.

  1. Framework Management

When applying for an architectural tender, demonstrating your proposed framework is a given. The Royal Institute for British Architecture’s (RIBA) Plan of Work 2020 is a seven-stage framework for all disciplines on construction projects. It’s probably the best place to start and the best guide to follow.

A framework agreement usually asks for multiple suppliers to deliver goods and services under one contract. Frameworks can be a good place to start if you’re a new or small business. Subcontracting opportunities may not require as much experience or turnover as if you were the sole supplier on a contract.

  1. Cost Management

Although cost management could be weighted significantly less than quality it’s by no means less important, as prices are competitive. You should be considering the affordability, design fees and how you ensure project designs are developed according to affordability parameters. You might need to reflect on how you would handle a project that’s over budget. It may be worth including the lessons you’ve learnt from previous experiences and how you overcame challenges. This should be detailed in your case studies. Bear in mind that public sector buyers look for MEAT, (The Most Economically Advantageous Tender).

  1. Stakeholder Management

When applying for architectural tenders, it’s important that you consider the views of all stakeholders. Ensuring they share your design vision from the start is critical. Involving stakeholders and different groups of people in the process can help you establish and prioritise their needs. Drawing on your past experience and how you have considered them in past developments.

  1. Social Value

Social value is becoming an ever-important section of architectural tenders and Pre-Qualification Questionnaires (PQQs). The economic, environmental and social impact that the project will have is increasingly important. How you are planning on giving back to the local community? When bidding for central government contracts a 10% weighting or more will be placed on social value. In some tenders, it can hold the weight of up to 30%. Your sustainable development goals should maximise and promote social values. Don’t be vague. Buyers want to see you making commitments that you can keep. In this section, you should include your ISO 14001.

Within the UK, a new social value model has recently launched aiming to:

  • Encourage economic growth.
  • Create new jobs.
  • Promote skills.
  • Tackle climate change.
  • Level up the UK.

These changes are now in place. It means the central government will be required to go beyond the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s important to note that the following should also be taken into consideration:

  • How your organisation supports Covid-19 recovery.
  • How you’re creating new businesses, skills and jobs to tackle economic inequality.
  • The environmental considerations you take to help fight climate change and reduce waste.
  • The equal opportunity policies you implement and adhere to within your organisation.

  1. Relevant Experience

Demonstrating relevant past experience is key when applying for architectural tenders. If you can show a proven track record of projects with similar complexity, it’s a better indicator of capability. Although, you still want to keep it relevant and including past works in similar geographical areas is also a bonus.

Each bid should be tailored and compelling, fitting in with the specification and what is required. For example, if a buyer requires affordable housing in Coventry, include previous experience in designing such housing in a similar area. If you only have experience with designing high-rise educational institutions in Hong Kong, then it probably isn’t suited to you. This is because as you may not have the relevant experience they require. The recommended timeframe of previous experience is typically within the last five years, so it’s worth taking that into consideration.

  1. CVs

Architectural tenders might ask you to show you have the right, qualified professionals on your team to deliver the services. For this, you may have to create CVs of your employees. They need to include their job title, past experience and what they can bring to the project. Tailoring your CVs to the given opportunity and project specification you are given is crucial. You don’t want to simply copy and paste from previous tenders. Pay attention to the specification, mention any organisational qualifications, staff training and certifications they have.

However, developing your company CVs in advance is recommended. Creating the outline will save you time in the future and help you respond to tenders reactively. Remember to double-check the content and add any necessary information to tailor the CV to the specification before submitting.

  1. Flexibility

You can plan as much as you like, but we all know that changes to the scope are a given. Being able to demonstrate that you can be flexible is a must. Adjusting to changes along the way is crucial to succeeding when bidding for architectural tenders. Buyers want to see how you will deal with an unexpected spanner in the works.

3 Types of architecture tenders

When looking for architecture tenders, they usually fall under these three service categories:

  1. Design development

Architecture tenders that fall under this service sector means that you will be responsible for the creation of the design. This could be detailed drawings of what the new building or re-design will look like. It will most likely also include the schematics of the project, outlining materials, measurements, and any other requirements necessary. From this, a project manager will use the drawings to begin the project.

  1. Design preparation

Due to the nature of architecture services, architecture tenders can become the starting point for further bids. This means, that architecture services required by buyers may be used to produce documents needed for other work. For example, a buyer could seek an Architect to draw up specifications for a new project. In turn, this could then be used to create a new bid seeking construction services. It will most likely include cost forecasts, material sourcing, and sourcing construction services. It will also mean creating ‘construction-ready’ documents. This means that your plans are easily conveyed to others, beyond your services.

  1. Construction administration

Buyers could be seeking architectural services for full project development. This will involve everything mentioned above, but also includes project managing the whole process, from start to finish. It could also include producing bids for construction work and negotiating with suppliers. There will also be quality management services, site surveying and health and safety checks involved.

Let’s Summarise

Understanding your services and what you can provide to buyers is the first step when sourcing architecture tenders. The three types of architectural services buyers usually seek are:

  • Design development
  • Design preparation
  • Construction administration.

Once you have established which service sector you belong to, you can begin to bid on architectural tenders. Remember when beginning the bid process, the eight things you need to consider within your bid response are:

  1. What the weighting of the tender is
  2. Framework management considerations
  3. Cost management procedures
  4. Stakeholder management procedures
  5. Your social value
  6. Showcase your relevant experience
  7. Include CVs to show your qualifications
  8. Flexibility management

Now you should be in a better place to begin sourcing, and bidding on new architectural tenders.

Where can I find architectural tenders?

Once you’ve taken all of this information into account, you might be asking yourself where you can find such opportunities. You likely don’t have the time to look through 1000+ websites every day but luckily for you, we have the solution.

Construction Tenders is an opportunity tracking platform. We source all the tenders from across the UK and upload the construction leads in one convenient place.

A subscription with Construction Tenders offers your business:

  • A team of opportunity trackers sourcing architectural tenders from 1000’s of sites.
  • Access to all private and public sector construction bids in the UK.
  • The ability to filter opportunities by keyword, location, budget and more.
  • No reliance on CPV codes or algorithms. Our team manually upload each tender making sure that you have access to 100% of architectural tenders.
  • Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
  • 20-minutes of free consultancy every month with our bid experts.

Here are just a few examples of architectural tenders we sourced recently:

Architectural Services

East Anglia Reserve Forces & Cadets Association – South East – Budget: £200,000

Architect for the Redevelopment of Cliff House & Bath Tap Site

East Suffolk Council – Eastern – Budget: £75,000

Montrose Zero Four – Objective A – Architect Services

Crown Estate Scotland – Scotland – Budget: £160,000

3212/SW Architectural Services for Central Teaching Laboratory

University of Sheffield – Yorkshire and Humber – Budget: £1,500,000

Architectural Services for Additional Accommodation

Loreto Junior School (Scoil Muire Ogh 2 Dublin) – Republic of Ireland – Budget: £1,180,000

Book a Demo with Construction Tenders

The best way to venture into the tendering world is through booking a free live demo of Construction Tenders. Why not contact us today to find out more about how Construction Tenders can benefit your business.

Need help writing your next architecture tender?

If you do not have the resources or time to write a winning bid, why not outsource it? Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, boasts an 87% success rate and has over 60 years of collective bidding experience. They offer four bid writing support packages to help you on the path to success. Whether you are new to tendering or need someone to proof your written response before you submit – we can help.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready programme is designed for those who have never tendered before. This 4-week programme works with you to ensure you have everything in place to tender successfully.

Tender Improvement

Tender Improvement can help if you are already tendering but are not seeing success from your current efforts. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous submissions and supporting documents. They will give you feedback and guidance on how to improve, helping you to secure your next architecture tender.

Tender Mentor

If you have written a tender and need someone to proofread it – Tender Mentor is for you. A Bid Writer will double-check it is in line with the specification and free of any grammar or spelling mistakes.

Tender Writing

If you have found the perfect tender but do not know where to start – we can help. Send the specification over to us and our Bid Team will do the rest. They will let you know what they need from you and provide you with a full breakdown. They will even submit it on your behalf, leaving you more time to focus on your business.

Get in touch to find out more information.

Want to save even more time? Upgrade to Discover Elite…

Upgrade to Discover Elite to ensure you never miss a tender, even when you are busy. The Ultimate Time-Saving Tool and the Become a Pre-Bid Master packages can improve your competitor awareness and bidding success rate. They can help save you even more time when searching for construction tenders.

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers:

An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option best suits a business that overlaps two industries such as Construction and Logistics.

  • A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
  • Weekly phone calls with your dedicated Account Manager to discuss viable tendering opportunities.
  • Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Buyer portal management including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid strategy.

The Pre-Bid Master package offers your business:

  • All the above
  • Up to seven tender breakdowns per month
  • A Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

Contact us to find out how Discover Elite can work for you.

We actively source tenders for the following sub-sectors:

How Easy is it to Secure Quantity Surveying Tenders?

Posted on by John Hudson

Quantity surveying tenders – the importance of securing a pipeline

Quantity surveying tenders are a great way to secure new business opportunities and contacts. Making sure that structures meet both quality, compliance and legal standards is an essential part of the construction process. Now more than ever there is a need for cost control and estimation within the construction sector.

But how easy is it to access these new opportunities? What is the importance of securing a pipeline? In order to know more about this, it would make sense to start with the basics.

What is a quantity surveying tender?

The most obvious question to start with is “what is a quantity surveying tender”. In a nutshell, tendering is one of the best ways to win new construction contracts and secure a pipeline of work. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find new contacts and keep current clients interested. Quantity surveying tenders offer a convenient solution to this common problem.

A tender is an invitation to submit a bid in an attempt to be part of a project. Buyers often have projects to complete where they need to outsource a quantity surveying role. Perhaps they don’t have the capacity to complete this in-house or have had to cut costs. Either way, there is a role which needs to be filled. Quantity surveying tenders are an effective way to go about this.

There is often a document released which details the needs of the buyer from the supplier.

These details can include:

  • Scope of Work– this contains the work required from the supplier and which areas they need to specialise in. It can also contain some background information about the buyer and their goals for the project.
  • Budget– an overview of what the buyer expects to spend on your services.
  • Financial Threshold– a guidance figure for what the supplier’s minimum turnover should be.
  • Location– where the project is located.
  • Timescales– the duration of the project and how long the supplier will be required. This can also include any potential extensions to the project.
  • Evaluative Methods– often shown as price vs quality in the form of a percentage. This will give an idea as to how much the buyer values cost vs detailed response and evidence of experience.
  • Selection Questionnaire– this provides an idea of the supplier’s level of experience, capacity and financial standing. There can also be additional quality/technical questions added onto this where a more substantial answer is needed. Case study examples of previous work may also be needed.
  • Pricing Schedule– enables buyers to assess the supplier’s idea of cost efficiency and where their money will be spent.
  • Submission Guidance– where to submit these documents and who to contact for advice.
  • Terms and Conditions– any legal assurances and contracts the buyer and supplier will need to have in place.

From here, suppliers will be expected to provide the information required for the buyer to assess their suitability. Buyers can then evaluate all the bids they have received and decide on a preferred supplier.

Why should I tender for work?

There are so many benefits to tendering, it’s hard to know where to start. So, here are our top 3 benefits of tendering for work:

  1. New Business Contacts

Arguably, the biggest reason why businesses turn to tendering is to secure new contracts. As every business owner will know, the key to a successful business is building relationships. Similarly, as a quantity surveyor, liaising with clients to identify their needs will be second nature. Without having access to these vital connections, you may not get a steady stream of work. This can ultimately result in your organisation’s decline.

We are living in a world where face to face meetings and word of mouth business is on the decrease. So, how are we, as businesses, expected to grow and secure new contracts?

Quantity surveying tenders pose an ideal solution. Having access to tenders can help build relationships with new clients. Even better, these clients are likely people who you would otherwise not have had access to. From here, there is an opportunity for inter-trading and collaborations. This will ultimately create an even more mutually beneficial relationship between yourself, as the supplier, and the buyer.

Continuing from this, many quantity surveying tenders call for a certain level of experience and case studies. Once you have worked with one buyer, and then have access to their contacts, the process will become significantly easier. From here you will have ample case studies and contract examples. This will result in a level of ease when securing contracts to build your pipeline of work.

  1. A Fair Process

The idea of a fair process is perhaps a more underrated benefit of tendering for work. Public sector tendering is well known for its structured process. This in itself has a range of benefits. Having a contract with terms and conditions, and a clear scope of work makes the process a lot easier for suppliers. In order to release a tender, buyers have to do a lot of prior research. Start and end dates need to be clarified, budgets need to be signed off etc… Automatically suppliers will know if they are suitable for the work.

Public sector buyers, and private buyers with higher budgets, are required by law to issue an “invitation to tender“. This is because tendering creates a fairer process. Buyers have to be clear about their value of price vs quality. There is no chance of a buyer spending their budget inappropriately. Similarly, there is a decreased risk of nepotism when awarding contracts. The evaluation criteria ensures the most suitable business will secure the contract. Public sector buyers have to be even more transparent as they are dealing with tax-payers funding. Ultimately the tendering process has to be fair and transparent as this information will be released to the public.

  1. Control Over Your Pipeline

Now onto the all-important pipeline. Tendering allows you to filter projects based on your preferences. Often when businesses rely on word of mouth, you can end up accepting contracts that aren’t suitable for your business. This can be out of fear there won’t be another opportunity that comes up. It can also be to keep a strong relationship with that business. With tendering this isn’t a concern. You will find a whole range of quantity surveying tenders at your disposal.

It’s important to note we aren’t suggesting you will win every contract you bid for. However, by having more choice you can effectively build a pipeline of work.

What we mean by “a pipeline of work” is that you will have a steady stream of work coming in. It may be very tempting to go for all the contracts which will have immediate benefits. Perhaps contracts with shorter durations where you will receive the money relatively soon seem more appealing. However, it is vital you know when one contract finishes, you have another waiting in the pipeline.

Here are some things to consider when building your pipeline:

  • Consider smaller contracts for interim periods.
  • Set time aside to review your pipeline.
  • Use Prior Information Notices (PIN) to get an idea of what is going to be released.
  • Plan ahead for proposals. It’s never a good idea to submit a rushed bid.
  • Hold planning meetings with your team to discuss your pipeline.
  • Establish relationships with buyers. This can give you an advantage through knowing their bidding cycle and potential future projects.

Did you know? – a top tip for SME’s 

Tendering for work as a smaller business can sometimes feel daunting. It may seem as though contracting authorities are only interested in big suppliers with years of contract examples. However, this is certainly not the case. The UK government has a target to help SME’s. Their target is to spend £1 in every £3 on SME businesses. This means that public sector buyers are actively seeking out smaller organisations to work and establish relationships with. Don’t price yourself out of the public sector market!

Where can I find quantity surveying tenders?

The next logical question to ask is “where can I find tenders?”. Like most businesses, you probably don’t have the time to go through 1000+ sites every day. It can be hard work knowing where to find quantity surveying tenders. Well, luckily for you we have a solution.

Construction Tenders is an opportunity tracking platform. We source all the tenders from across the UK and upload them in one central place.

A subscription with Construction Tenders offers you:

  • A team of opportunity trackers sourcing quantity surveying tenders from 1000’s of sites.
  • Access to all private and public sector construction bids across the UK.
  • The ability to filter opportunities by keyword, budget, location etc…
  • A daily email alert to let you know about the latest quantity surveying tenders.
  • No reliance on CPV codes or algorithms. Our team manually upload each tender, making sure you have access to 100% of quantity surveying tenders.
  • Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
  • 20 minutes of free consultancy every month with our bid experts.

How can I secure quantity surveying tenders?

Once you’ve found the perfect quantity surveying tender, how can you secure it?

Look no further than Hudson Succeed. Our team hold an 87% bid success rate. Last year alone, they secured direct contract wins totalling over £300million for our clients. They thrive in creating bespoke packages to suit your business needs.

Here are some examples of the services they offer:

Book a Demo with Construction Tenders

The best way to venture into the tendering world is through booking a free live demo of Construction Tenders.

We actively source construction leads and tenders for the following sub-sectors:

Contact us today to find out more about how Construction Tenders can help your business.

The Future of Carpentry Tenders

Posted on by John Hudson

What Will Brexit Mean for Carpentry Tenders?

Securing work through carpentry tenders is a great way to get diverse experience in a specialised trade. If your business specialises in a sub-sector of construction, you need to consider the implications of Brexit while tendering. Do you import materials from countries in the European Union (EU), or employ EU nationals? Or are you simply concerned about business prospects post-Brexit, and going forward into 2021?

Here’s a guide on what you should be doing (right now!) to secure carpentry tenders as we head towards Brexit.

When is Brexit?

You’re likely aware that Brexit is fast approaching. But when actually is it?

Currently, the UK is in a transition period until the end of the year while we negotiate new arrangements with the European Union (EU). January 1st, 2021 is the official date that the transition period ends. This is regardless of whether we reach a trade deal with the EU. Businesses must prepare for changes as we leave the customs union and single market.

Over the past month, business secretary, Alok Sharma, has urged businesses to prepare. He advised: “Businesses must act now to ensure they are ready for the UK’s new start come January … There will be no extension to the transition period, so there is no time to waste. Businesses have a crucial role to play in ensuring a smooth transition, and we will be there to support them.”

It’s understandable to be concerned as a business owner as we head towards the uncertainties of Brexit. Not to mention we’re in the middle of a second national lockdown. But, thankfully, we have some reassuring news regarding carpentry tenders.

Is now a good time to find carpentry tenders?

As long as you’re up to date on changing regulations – yes!

Construction will stay open for business during the second national lockdown and over the threshold of Brexit into 2021. The Construction Leadership Council has advised that construction sites should remain in operation. Sites should review their social distancing measures and remind their workforce to comply with Site Operating Procedures at all times. This means new carpentry tenders will be available.

The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) also confirmed that training courses will continue, and test centres will remain open. Should they need to, workers can still undertake their Health, Safety and Environment assessments, for instance.

Looking beyond Brexit, the CITB also announced a detailed strategic plan to invest in and incentivise the construction industry. Going forward, the CITB will fund ‘hubs’ to train and develop new labourers. This will help relieve the immediate problem of replacing labourers who previously came from the EU.

What are the figures?

As of November 2020, the number and value of construction contracts overall are increasing. Here’s how carpentry tenders are bouncing back after the devastating closures of Spring 2020:

  • October 2020 saw 482 construction contracts awarded, worth £6.8 billion. This is a 10% increase from September 2020 and the highest figures since April 2020.
  • Construction tender opportunities in October were spread more widely across the UK in comparison to September. While a third of expenditure was in London (£2.3 billion), regions right across the nation saw large spends. For example, Scotland (£635 million), West Midlands (£534 million) and the South West (£515 million).

So, as we head into a post-Brexit 2021, it’s a promising time to seek carpentry tenders and secure business opportunities.

How do I find carpentry tenders?

To speed up the process of finding relevant carpentry tenders that can grow your business, try our Construction Tenders portal. We source construction contract opportunities on a daily basis, from thousands of buyers. We manually search for business opportunities in the public and private sector, across the UK, so you don’t have to. All you need to do is filter by relevant keywords, budgets, industry sectors and locations.

You’ll receive daily alerts when tenders are released for relevant services. Private buyers also post projects direct to our portal to source suitable suppliers from our subscribers. Book a free live demo today and see how we can help you find and secure carpentry tenders.

Will I need to adjust my business to win carpentry tenders post-Brexit?

Potentially, yes. And the sooner the better.

On January 1st, changes will be made to the way businesses do the following:

  • Import and export goods
  • Hire workers from the EU
  • Provide services in EU markets.

But don’t fret. We’ve compiled the main points highlighted by the latest government advice and the latest weekly industry report from Build UK. The following points should be relevant to your business if you’re interested in carpentry tenders. You should, however, also seek personalised advice on how your business will be affected by Brexit. To do this, use the governments ‘Check, Change, Go’ tool on www.gov.uk.

You may need to reconsider the following things to meet regulations and secure future carpentry tenders.

  1. Importing goods

Your business risks not being able to bring or receive goods or materials from EU countries if you don’t prepare. You should take the following steps to prepare for 1st January:

  • Check the new rules on importing and exporting goods from the EU. For example, timber imported into the UK is currently governed by the European Timber Regulations (EUTR). From 1st January 2021, it will be governed by the UK Timber Regulations (UKTR) in England, Scotland and Wales. If your carpentry business imports timber from the EU, it will incur the responsibilities of an ‘Operator’ under the new regulations. In 2021, your company will have to undertake due diligence to show that there is ‘negligible risk’ that the timber was illegally harvested.
  • Get an EORI number that starts with GB to move your goods into or out of the EU. This can take up to a week to receive. It is essential for moving goods, going forward.
  • Check the UK Global Tariff that will apply to imported goods and decide how you will make customs declarations. Will you need to get someone to deal with customs for you?
  • Check the rules for reporting unfair trade practices using the UK’s new trade remedies service.

  1. Employing workers from the EU

You risk not being able to employ workers from outside the UK if you do not take the following steps:

  • If you plan to recruit workers from the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein, you will need to obtain a sponsor licence, which can take up to eight weeks. (This does not apply to workers from Ireland or people with pre-settled or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme.)
  • Encourage your employees to check if they need to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme.
  • If you have workers from the EU who wish to continue living and working in the UK after 30 June 2021, advise them to apply for settled and pre‐settled status.
  • If you have workers who travel to the EU for work purposes, they may need to apply for a visa or work permit from 1 January.
  • Familiarise yourself with the new points‐based immigration system.

How can I increase my chances of securing carpentry tenders?

When tendering, it’s very important to keep up to date with changing regulations in regard to Brexit and COVID-19. Carpentry tender opportunities may be more difficult to secure in a changing climate. |t’s therefore important that you put your best foot forward with all tenders that are available and suitable for you!

A successful carpentry bid requires in-depth knowledge about tendering and procurement processes. Alongside our Construction Tenders portal, we also offer dedicated bid writing support via Hudson Succeed. The Succeed team has supported and secured construction bids for many clients in the industry. They’re on hand to help you complete carpentry tenders if you don’t have in-house the resources to do so.

There are four levels of tender writing support depending on your needs:

Send the tender specification to our bid writers. They will write the carpentry tender response and submit the bid on your behalf.

Our bid writers will assess your previous tender responses and work with you to develop improved content.

Our team will analyse your content and check for any errors before you submit your tender response.

The 4-week programme consists of creating and branding your corporate literature and helping you to identify opportunities.

Get in touch with Construction Tenders

Book a free live demo of Construction Tenders today. Clients receive a daily bulletin straight to their inbox when new tenders are uploaded. The bulletin contains all the relevant construction leads that we have sourced that day.

We actively source tenders for the following sub-sectors:

Contact us today and allow us to help you grow your business with Construction Tenders.

What Does Tendering Mean to the Construction Sector?

Posted on by John Hudson

What is tendering in construction?

Tendering is a vital business development strategy for most construction firms. Why? Because tendering is an effective way of securing new contracts from buyers you may not have had access previously to or even be aware of.

So, what is tendering? As in all industries, tendering is an approach that is ultimately deemed to be the fairest way of procuring works, goods and services. The tendering process, however, can vary slightly depending on your industry sector. It is normally a formal process, aimed at procuring the most economically advantageous option.

In order to secure the work, businesses have to demonstrate why they are the most appropriate supplier for the construction contract. You must answer the buyer’s specification and evidence how you will meet the criteria of the contract.

What is the process?

Pre-qualifying stages

Initially, buyers may request that suppliers complete and submit a PAS-91. This method of pre-qualifying suppliers is becoming increasingly popular in the construction sector. It was developed by the British Standards Institute to save suppliers time filling out multiple types of PQQs.

In a nutshell, the PAS-91 takes the same ‘what have you done’ approach as the PQQ. The main purpose is to ensure that suppliers who bid for the contract, have the capability to deliver the services/goods if successful.

Requests

Depending on the contract, the buyer can ask for this information by publishing various different requests. For example, buyers can publish:

  • An RFQ (request for quote)
  • An RFP (request for proposal)
  • or an RFI (request for information) and more besides.

If buyers require more than just a quote, they will divide their evaluation weighting into pricing and quality. For example, the buyer may mark the tender responses based on 60% price and a 40% quality. We have also seen this the other way around in a variety of different ratios.

When quality is required, this means that the buyer is assessing your written responses to their questions. They may also request to see three previous, relevant, contract examples and potentially turnover evidence in the form of accounts.

Evaluation

Once you have completed the tender and submitted your bid, the buyer will then evaluate the submissions against the specification.

The highest-scoring supplier will be awarded the contract and the work will commence on the contract start date. 

Why do businesses tender for work?  

Securing contracts through tendering is a proactive approach to your business development strategy. When asking yourself, ‘what is tendering in construction?’ the answer is simply, being practical about growing your business.

It’s great when you get inbound leads through marketing or word-of-mouth. However, to really grow your business sustainably, you need to invest in self-generation.

Tendering opens up a new world of possibilities. If you’re a smaller business, relying on word-of-mouth, imagine the difference that securing a construction contract with the council could make to your pipeline of work. You can secure long-term, 10+ year contracts with local authorities and know that the work is guaranteed for the future.

As well as this, the Prompt Payment Code means that you are guaranteed to be paid on time. All too often we hear of businesses who have been caught in difficult situations when clients miss payments. The Prompt Payment Code means that government authorities have 30 days to pay invoices. 

What if you’re an SME? 

If you’re an SME business and you’re asking yourself ‘what is tendering in construction?’ you can think of it as a way of opening doors.

We have been supporting businesses with their tendering efforts for almost two decades. In this time, we have realised that SMEs are often under the impression that they are too small to tender.

Under this impression, you could potentially be losing out on multiple opportunities for business growth.

In terms of government construction contracts, the UK government has a target to spend every £1 in £3 with SMEs. This means that public sector buyers want to award contracts to SMEs in order to meet this target.

Of course, there will be contracts that are simply too big for SME businesses to deliver. However, for businesses that are new to tendering, we always recommend starting small and working your way up. It is likely that with smaller contracts, you won’t be competing against the “big players”. They will be bidding for the larger projects. By building a portfolio of contracts, you are preparing your business for winning big construction bids in the future.

Where do I find tendering opportunities in construction? 

By simply Googling ‘Construction Tenders’ you will be confronted with a plethora of platforms who will source these opportunities.

However, if you’re looking to save time when sourcing these tenders, you should be aware of issues with CPV codes.

CPV codes (or common procurement vocabulary) are how buyers categorise their tenders. In theory, each industry has its own code and buyers simply select the service with the correct code when publishing a tendering opportunity.

However, when we conducted research, we found that a third of tenders were tagged with incorrect codes. The problem is that these opportunity tracking platforms rely on algorithms to collect their data and the algorithms track CPV codes.

That’s why our Construction Tenders platform is different. We don’t rely on codes or algorithms to source our tenders. We have a dedicated team of Opportunity Trackers who manually search thousands of sources, daily. They read the buyer’s requirements and tag each tender with industry-driven keywords.

What does this mean for you?

When signing up to Construction Tenders, you will simply be able to enter the keywords that represent your services and instantly find construction leads. The tenders you see will be relevant to your service offering and ultimately, this will save countless hours, searching through hundreds of irrelevant contracts.

Below are previous construction tenders sourced on our portal:

Provision of Scaffolding to Weetwood, Wooler

Advance Northumberland Limited- North East- Budget: Undisclosed

Minor Works Framework Agreement Daresbury Laboratory & UK Astronomy Technology Centre

UK Shared Business Services Limited- South West- Budget: £9,500,000

Mechanical Upgrade Works at Ballyheada N.S.

Ballyheada National School- International- Budget: Undisclosed

Freemans Park B Block Campus Mechanical Works

Leicester College- East Midlands- Budget: Undisclosed

Flat Roof Replacement & Parapet Repairs at Clacton Police Station

7 Forces Procurement- Eastern- Budget: £380,000

We source tenders for services including;

Book a free live demo of the portal to see the current opportunities and see how the system can help your business.

How do I win?

When you find the perfect contract, it’s easy to get excited and imagine winning the tender. Then, you look at the requirements and see that the buyer has asked for quality responses totalling 10,000+ words. How will you complete this to a high-standard whilst delivering your current contracts?

That’s why we developed our sister company, Hudson Succeed. This is our bid writing division. Our Bid Writers have vast experience supporting construction businesses with their tendering efforts. The team proudly holds an 87% bid success rate and they are trusted by over 700 businesses, globally.

Get in touch with the team for a free consultation. Our consultants will be happy to discuss your current tendering strategy or how to get started with your first bid. Call 0203 051 2217 or email hi@tenderconsultants.co.uk.

Shovel-ready projects & the £1.3 billion investment

Posted on by John Hudson

Shovel-ready projects receive a £900 million investment

Shovel-ready projects will account for over £900 million of the Government’s £1.3 billion investment in homes, infrastructure and jobs. £360 million will be used to build 26,000 new homes. Overall, the funds are predicted to deliver up to 45,000 homes and create up to 85,000 jobs. The work will also help to upgrade skills and infrastructure, contributing to building a greener economic recovery.

What is it?

The Housing Secretary, Rt Hon Robert Jenrick, announced the nearly £1.3 billion investment earlier this month (August). The project will see the build and implementation of vital infrastructure across England.

Over 300 projects throughout the country have been told that they will be receiving a share of the £900 million. This is being referred to as the ‘Getting Building Fund’. The fund was announced by the Prime Minister in June as the COVID recovery plans stepped into action.

The Housing Secretary said:

“As we get Britain building, we are also laying the foundations for a green economic recovery by investing in vital infrastructure for local communities, creating jobs and building environmentally-friendly homes with a huge £1.3 billion investment announced today.

This Government is determined to level up all parts of the country and this funding will not only give a much-needed boost to our economic recovery, it will help build the good quality, affordable homes the country needs.”

What is the goal of the projects?

Not only focussed around infrastructure, the shovel-ready projects are also in aid of boosting the economy as we recover from the pandemic. Whilst creating around 85,000 jobs, the projects offer a chance to boost skills in the construction industry.

Creating a greener England is also one of the main aims of the work. It is expected that the new infrastructure will reduce around 65 million kilograms of CO2 emissions across the country.

The successful projects

Some of the 300 successful shovel-ready projects include;

  • Mayfield Park in Greater Manchester. They were granted £23 million for the first phase for the development of commercial space. The project is predicted to open 3,200 jobs and attract around 1 million visitors per year.
  • The National Brownfield Land Institute was granted £14.88 million. The project aims to create a leader in sustainable construction to drive levelling up across the region.
  • Support for a high-speed railway station in Thanet, Kent. The project was funded £12 million and aims to improve transport infrastructure in the area, as well as creating 800 jobs.
  • A total of 21 projects in the North East have been granted a combined £64 million. These projects include the Gateshead Quays convention centre and the development of a new business park. These schemes are expected to create over 4,200 jobs and safeguard a further 3,500.

In total, the successful shovel-ready projects are expected to deliver;

  • 85,000 jobs;
  • 1 million sqm of commercial space;
  • 45,000 homes;
  • Almost 1 million sqm of the public realm or green space (improved or created).

Developing 26,000 new homes

The government has also confirmed a further £360 million investment in Mayoral Combined Authority areas. This investment will help to develop 26,000 homes, whilst protecting greenfield sites.

Additionally, another £8million of funding has been confirmed for brownfield sites. The funding will speed up the build of new homes on these sites. These leaves £40million of funding remaining, for which the Government is now inviting ambitious bids from Mayoral Combined Authorities.

Green Homes grant scheme & required accreditations

The new Green Homes grant scheme will see the government offer £2billion of funding. This will fund up to two-thirds of the cost of home improvements for over 600,000 homes.

However, please be aware that tradespeople must register for a TrustMark accreditation in order to take part in the scheme.

The Business and Energy Secretary, Rt Hon Alok Sharma said:

“Green home improvements will save people money on their energy bills, help to cut carbon emissions, and create new work for many thousands of builders, plumbers and other tradespeople.

Our TrustMark scheme will guarantee that building work is completed to a high standard by accredited tradespeople, ensuring consumers are fully protected.”

Households on low incomes can receive vouchers which will cover 100% of the cost of their home improvements. This support carries a maximum of £10,000.

Are you looking for new construction projects?

Does your  business need to secure new construction contracts in the UK? We know that the opportunity tracking process can be time-consuming. There are numerous tendering portals available to you that can make the process more efficient. However, when we conducted research, we found that over a third of the opportunities on these portals were tagged with incorrect CPV codes.

In a nutshell, CPV (common procurement vocabulary) is how the algorithms on these portals find and identify tenders. The problem is that buyers don’t always know which CPV codes to use when publishing tendering opportunities.

We decided to eradicate this process altogether. When we developed Construction Tenders, we decided not to rely on CPV or to leave decisions at the mercy of computers. Our team of Opportunity Trackers manually searches thousands of sources every day. They identify new opportunities in the construction sector and upload them to one central system. They then tag the tenders with industry-specific keywords. This means that all the tenders you see are relevant to your business. No more searching and scrolling through endless, irrelevant contracts.

But don’t just take our word for it. Book a free live demo and trial the system for yourself. The demo will allow you to access the system, see the current opportunities and understand how the portal can help your business.

We source tenders for services including;

Refurbishment Tenders

Do you need bid writing support for a construction tender?

We understand how important the process of tendering is to the construction industry. Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, houses our five dedicated bid writing services. The Succeed team has vast experience with writing and winning construction bids. They proudly hold an 87% bid success rate and are trusted by over 700 businesses globally.

Each service was created to ensure that the team can support businesses of varying sizes with different levels of tendering experience.

For example, the Tender Ready package was designed to support those who are new to tendering. During the service, our bid writers will work with you to develop the corporate literature you will need when you begin tendering for work. Not only that, but our Bid Designers will also ensure that your documents are professionally branded and stand out from your competition. They will then help you to identify the right tendering opportunities for your business. Then, they will offer to write your first bid on your behalf or guide you through two.

Tender Writing is the perfect ad-hoc solution if you require support with a one-off bid. The team will write your tender responses, attach the required documents and then submit the bid on your behalf. They will work with you to respond to any technical questions to ensure that your bid showcases your business in the best light.

Tender Improvement was developed to help you see success from your tendering efforts. During this service, our consultants will assess your previous tender responses and identify any areas of improvement. They will also assess your corporate literature and either create or re-develop any necessary documents. Once this is complete, the team can either write your next bid or guide you through two.

Further support  

For further support or more information about how we can help your construction business grow with a steady supply of construction leads please get in touch. Our team will be happy to take you on a tour through our Construction Tenders portal or discuss your tendering strategy in more detail.

The North London Heat and Power Project

Posted on by John Hudson

The £600million North London Heat and Power Project 

The North London Waste Authority (NLWA) has called for bids to develop a world-class Energy Recovery Facility (ERF). The work comes as part of the North London Heat and Power Project (NLHPP) to modernise Edmonton EcoPark.

The government originally granted development consent for the project in 2017, with work consisting of a new energy recovery plant to replace the incinerator which has been in place for almost 50 years. During this time, the park has diverted over 21 tonnes of waste from going to landfill.

The impact of the project will have the same carbon impact as removing 110,000 cars off the road each year.

For workers in the construction industry, this contract offers an array of opportunities due to the various services required.

The Chair of the NLWA, Councillor Clyde Loakes, said: “The procurement of the ERF is our biggest contract to date and marks a crucial step forward in delivering this nationally significant infrastructure project for our two million residents.

“In the first phase of construction we’re also investing £100m in flagship recycling facilities which are vital for boosting North London’s recycling rates.”

What does the contract involve?

The modernisation work will take place over the next 10 years. The project is to develop a sustainable waste hub, involving substantial investment in state-of-the-art recycling facilities.

The North London Heat and Power Project requires the construction of an Energy Recovery Facility. The successful supplier will be responsible for all risk for;

  • Design;
  • Engineering;
  • Procurement;
  • Construction;
  • Commissioning;
  • Testing;
  • And operator training.

The new development will utilise the most up-to-date technology to control emissions. This means that the facility will be capable of using 60% less than the current limits for nitrogen oxides.

The site will have the capacity to treat up to 700,000 tonnes of household waste every year. The radius will cover the boroughs of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Waltham Forest.

The process

The project is divided into four stages.

Stage 1 – The preparatory works which are due to end in 2021.

Stage 2 – The building works which will continue until 2023.

Stage 3 – The Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) construction and commissioning. This work is due to begin in 2023 and end in 2025

Stage 4 – Post-ERF works consisting of the decommissioning and demolition of the existing facility. This stage is due to begin in 2027 and finish in 2031.

Creating jobs

The NLWA has committed to boosting local employment by 25%. Throughout the development, the project will provide approximately 100 apprenticeships. At least 90 of these opportunities will be directly associated with the Energy Recovery Facility.

NLHPP’s Programme Director, David Cullen, has claimed: “Overall, the construction of the NLHPP will generate 2,500 jobs.

“We’re working with the constituent boroughs of the NLWA and education providers to ensure that job opportunities and wider project benefits reach the local community where they are most needed.”

Why is the project important?

The facility will be part of NLWA’s efforts to raise awareness of the need for waste reduction and improvements to recycling. The North London Heat and Power Project forms the wider plan which includes Low Plastic Zones, clothing swaps and the London Upcycling Show.

The new development will be crucial to managing non-recyclable waste in the area sustainably. When the project is complete, the ERF will ensure that increasing waste levels can be managed responsibly for years to come. For the first time ever, residents will be allowed to bring their household waste to the EcoPark. The items will then be processed through the facility, lowering the usage of landfill sites.

Overall, the NLHPP project will see the development of;

  • The Energy Recovery Facility;
  • A Resource Recovery Facility;
  • A Reuse and Recycle Centre;
  • And EcoPark House which will include a visitor and education centre.

Finding construction opportunities

Are you looking for new construction contracts to help your business grow? Our Construction Tenders portal is dedicated to your industry.

Construction Tenders is our opportunity tracking portal. We know that opportunity tracking for tenders is a full-time job because we have a team who is solely responsible for this every day. They source new contract opportunities from thousands of sites to ensure that you never miss out.

Once the tenders have been sourced, they are then uploaded to our portal and categorised with industry-led keywords. This allows you to log into the system, select the services you provide and instantly find all the relevant opportunities. You can also filter the results by location, budget and sector.

Below are previous heat and power tenders sourced on our portal:

GB-Colchester: Planned Renewal of Heating Systems

Colchester Borough Council- Eastern- Budget: £1,000,000

CAT1 Gas Works: Heating Upgrade Works – Rosary College, Armagh Road, Crumlin, Dublin 12

Rosary College (Crumlin)- International- Budget: Undisclosed

Emergency heating works to Mary Queen of Ireland

Mary Queen of Ireland National School (Toberburr)- International- Budget: Undisclosed

Upgrade of LV Panels at Solihull Hospital

Sunderland City Council- North East- Budget: Undisclosed

Heating Installation and Associated Works

South Tyneside Council- North East- Budget: Undisclosed

Book a free live demo of our portal. The demo will allow you to access the system, see the current tenders and understand how the portal can help your business with construction leads.

We source tenders for services including;

Construction sector bid writing services

Once you have sourced the perfect tendering opportunity, you may need support with writing the bid. Bid writing requires a set of specialist skills, not to mention time and resources.

Our team at sister company, Hudson Succeed, have experience with writing and winning tenders in the construction sector. They have been helping business to see success from their tendering efforts for almost two decades and they support over 700 businesses globally. The team proudly holds a bid success rate of 87%, so you can rest assured that your bid is in safe hands.

No matter the size of your organisation or experience with tendering, Hudson Succeed can support you with your construction bids. The team offer five dedicated bid writing services;

  • Tender Writing: A fully managed bid writing service. The team will handle everything from writing your tender responses to submitting the final bid.
  • Tender Ready: A full preparation service for businesses who are new to tendering. This service involves the creation and branding of your corporate literature, support to find your first tender opportunity and the option of a bid writing service or guide and review support.
  • Tender Improvement: The perfect solution for increasing your success rate. During this service, our consultants will assess your previous tender submissions and advise on areas of improvement.
  • Tender Mentor: An expert second pair of eyes. This is the perfect final stage before submitting the bid. Let our experts review your responses and provide guidance to ensure you submit an error-free bid.

Call or email the team for a free consultation.

Local Road Maintenance Contracts – £100million invested into local roads

Posted on by John Hudson

Local Road Maintenance Contracts – could your business benefit?

Local road maintenance contracts are expected to be announced as the government announces a prolonged £100 million investment into local road conditions.

“As the country begins the recovery from COVID-19, we need to get on the front foot and invest in infrastructure in every region to reignite the economy, helping better connect people with opportunities in the future.  

“By investing £100 million in local roads and reaffirming our commitment to better connecting communities, we are not just talking about levelling up – but making it happen.” – Grant Shapps, Transport Secretary.

The projects

A total of 29 projects will benefit from the investment. These projects will range from fixing deteriorating road surfaces to flood mitigation works and bridge repairs. The aim of the projects is to make a long-lasting improvement to the quality of local highways throughout the UK.

High-quality road surfaces lie at the heart of the public’s ability to travel for both work and leisure. By making these improvements, the aim is to encourage the economic boost needed to help the UK recover from the COVID pandemic.

The listed projects include some of the UK’s most important A-roads, stretching from the A58 in Bolton to the A38 in Somerset.

You can expect to see local road maintenance contracts for;

  • The repair of two bridges in Sandwell;
  • Key routes in Liverpool;
  • Swanswell Viaduct;
  • Tadcaster Road, York;
  • Footpaths in Sheffield
  • And the A15.

Where can you find local road maintenance contracts?

Don’t worry about keeping track of hundreds of sites, waiting for contracts to be announced. Our team at Construction Tenders do this daily. They manually search through thousands of sources to ensure you never miss construction leads. Once they have identified new tenders, they are uploaded to our dedicated portal and tagged with industry-driven keywords. This means that you can simply log into the portal, select the keywords with relevance to your business and instantly find new construction contracts in the UK. Not only that, you can also use the location filter to easily find the most recent contract opportunities in your area.

Don’t have time to log in? We’ll send you an email alert each time a relevant opportunity is uploaded to our system.

Below are previous local road maintenance contracts sourced on our portal:

Mini competition – A6 Chorley Road Junction

Salford City Council- North West- Budget: Undisclosed

Installation of new pop-up Cycle Paths within Hull City Centre – Expression of Interest

Hull City Council- Yorkshire and Humber- Budget: Undisclosed

GB-Braintree: Cemetery Embankment Works

Braintree District Council- Eastern- Budget: £100,000

Road Recycling Works Within the Municipal District of Athlone and Moate

Westmeath County Council- International- Budget: Undisclosed

Area 10 M65 Junction 2 Safety Scheme GPR, Trial Pits, Asbestos and Lighting

Highways England- North West- Budget: £25,000

We offer a free live demo of our portal. The demo allows you to access the system, tour the functionality and understand how the portal can help your business.

Book a free demo

We source construction leads  for services including;

Need support responding to tenders?

Our team at sister company, Hudson Succeed, have vast experience with construction bids. They offer five dedicated services to ensure that businesses of all sizes have an equal chance at seeing success from their tendering efforts.

The team proudly hold an 87% bid success rate and they support over 700 businesses, globally. Get in touch to speak to a consultant today about construction contracts.

Building construction contracts for tender

Posted on by John Hudson

Building construction contracts for tender

In 2018, the construction industry contributed to 6% of the UK economy. However, in March 2020, there was a large decline in outputs due to Covid-19. There was a 6.2% decrease in new work – the largest monthly fall since records were created in 2010. Now that construction work is up and running again, you can rest assured that there will be more building construction contracts for tender.

Most tenders in the construction industry will name the form of contract under which you will operate within the tender documentation. Hitting the ‘control’ and ‘f’ keys will help you to discover which one will most likely be used.

Upon successfully tendering for a building construction contract, you will have to sign it and adhere to it. It’s important therefore to have a working knowledge of the types of contract you may have to undertake.

Contract notices

A contract notice provides information about building construction contracts for tender. In short, this is an advertisement for current tenders and therefore upcoming contracts. These are published on OJEU, and you can utilise the Government’s Contracts Finder tool to search for building construction contracts for tender. This is one of hundreds of websites where notices are published. Details often include:

  • Type of contract;
  • Approximate/estimated value;
  • Contract duration;
  • Any lot-specific information.

Similarly, a prior information notice (PIN) flags up any upcoming procurement runs. PINs let potential bidders know that they can expect the release of a tender typically within the coming 12 months. This process is optional – it merely serves to accelerate the tender timetables, as bidders have had advance notice of a tender’s release.

It’s worth keeping an eye on contract notices and PINs so that you can be sure you’re ready for when desirable building construction contracts for tender are released.

Standard forms of contract

Everyone knows a contract sets out the relationship and expectations between two parties. Critically, building construction contracts for tender outline the allocation of risk and price. Contracts will make most sense when read alongside certain tender documents such as terms and conditions, and/or the specification.

We have listed here the most popular building construction contracts for tender within the UK:

  • JCT (The Joint Contracts Tribunal)

JCT forms of contract are the most commonly found within the sector. It is a limited company which produces contracts and other supporting documentation, such as sub-contracts and forms of tender. JCT contracts cover the construction of all buildings, including but not limited to:

  • Standard and intermediate building contracts;
  • Minor and major works contracts;
  • Design and build contracts.

  • Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB)

The CIOB developed the Complex Projects Contract in 2013, but it was renamed to the Time and Cost Management Contract in 2015. Its primary aim is to organise time management in complex construction and engineering projects. Buyers may use this contract because it caters for BIM. This contract form entails close collaboration between multiple parties involved in the project. This is because of the contract’s aim to mitigate time and cost risk. Ultimately, this contract pushes for early completions of complex projects.

  • FIDIC (Fédération Internationale des Ingénieurs-Conseil)

This is a membership organisation with a suite of contracts at its disposal for works in:

  • Construction;
  • Design and build;
  • Turnkey projects.

The organisation’s primary aim is to promote the strategic goals of the construction industry. The contract forms here are internationally recognised, as you may have guessed from the French name.

  • NEC (The New Engineering Contract)

NEC4, the latest version of the NEC suite of contracts, became available in June 2017. NEC contracts have been available for over 20 years, and thus NEC4 is the culmination of feedback from the use of the contracts in practice. The NEC4 contract aims to streamline:

  • Contract administration;
  • Risk management;
  • Key terminology.

There are various changes between the NEC3 and the NEC4 contracts. These changes all have the purpose of promoting and facilitating collaboration between all parties.

There will be other forms of building construction contracts for tender, but these are far less commonly used.

Bespoke contracts

Some companies, usually private sector organisations, will use bespoke contracts which are written specifically for the project at hand. These are riskier than signing standard forms of contract and tend not to cover as many eventualities. As the contractor, you normally have little choice about the contract you sign. As such, it’s worth considering which formats of building construction contracts for tender you are willing to bid for.

CIC BIM Protocol

CIC BIM Protocol is an additional legal agreement that can be added to construction contracts, suitable for all Level 2 BIM projects. Its main purpose is to establish obligations, limitations and liabilities which support Level 2 BIM construction projects.

Components

But which documents might these types of contracts contain? Possibly all, or a combination of, the following:

  • Article of agreement and conditions of contract (what needs completing);
  • Drawings;
  • Bills of quantities;
  • Schedules of work;
  • Specification(s);
  • Adjustments schedule (any changes agreed following the tender process);
  • An information release schedule;
  • A model enabling amendment and/or BIM protocol (for BIM projects).

Tendering

Now that we’ve understood the popular forms of contract, let’s look at how to tender for them. Within the documentation for building construction contracts for tender, you will probably find the following:

  • A PAS 91.

The construction industry’s answer to a Pre-Qualification Questionnaire. Your method statements and pricing will not be evaluated if you don’t pass this stage. Unless you have SSIP certifications like Constructionline, CHAS or Safecontractor or ISO/OHSAS accreditations, you’ll have to provide policies and answer questions on the following subjects:

  • Quality assurance;
  • Health and Safety;
  • Environmental considerations;
  • Equal opportunities and diversity.

Make sure you pay attention to detail here. It is imperative that you attach relevant evidence and accreditations where prompted.

  • Method statements.

Most buyers will want to understand your approach to delivering your services and their requirements. As such, you may have to respond to questions asking about:

  • Your proposed resourcing – qualifications, experience and training of staff;
  • Your proposed approach and how this complies with the specification and/or industry regulations;
  • Mobilisation – how you intend to ensure that the contract is ready to commence on the buyer’s stipulated date;
  • How you comply with certain legislation/regulations;
  • Quality assurance – such as minimising defects;
  • How you minimise environmental impacts;
  • Health and safety and/or risk management;
  • Social value – how you can contribute to the social and economic wellbeing of the local community.

As part of these method statements, you may be asked to (or choose to) submit supporting documentation. This could be policies, procedures, accreditations, or CVs for your staff members. If there is a question about resource, it’s possible you’ll also have to attach copies of staff’s qualifications/certifications to prove their competency.

Tender documentation may often state the importance of the claims you make in your method statements. Some or all of the content could be inserted into the contract and therefore form legally binding commitments. It’s important to bear this in mind when creating your responses. However, this shouldn’t mean that you scrimp on demonstrating your ability to provide added value and deliver the services.

  • A pricing schedule.

You will have to complete a pricing schedule as part of your tender response. Make sure you price your services competitively without making a loss.

Those releasing building construction contracts for tender will be similar to other public procurement buyers. Organisations could include:

  • Councils;
  • Housing associations;
  • NHS Trusts or CCGs;

Most buyers will have preferred contract forms – so for example, Durham County Council may only use NEC4 contracts. It might be worth considering which contract forms buyers use and bid for those with which you already have experience where possible.

Further support

Still got more questions? Why not contact the Hudson helpline. Our experts can provide you with bespoke advice about queries you have about your construction bids.

If you’re interested in building construction contracts for tender but don’t know where to start, look no further. At Hudson Succeed, we have five support packages to help you in your tendering efforts. Our team has an 87% success rate and can help you with any tender, of any size or form. Contact them today to find out more about your options.

Or if you need help finding building construction contracts for tender, Construction Tenders from Hudson Discover could be your answer. We don’t use CPV codes – we use real people to give you reliability and accuracy. Our opportunity trackers scour numerous portals every day and upload new public and private construction contracts in the UK directly to our site. It’s never been easier to source new business opportunities. Click here to contact the team and access your free demo of our time-saving tool.

Get in Touch with Construction Tenders:

Sign up to Construction Tenders today and receive a daily construction leads bulletin straight to your inbox, containing all relevant small construction tenders uploaded that day.

Below are previous building construction contracts sourced on our portal:

45210000-2 Building Construction Work

St. Macartan’s National School- Northern Ireland- Budget: Undisclosed

Building Construction Framework Agreement

Grwp Llandrillo Menai- Wales- Budget: £10,000,000

CREWW Research Facility Building Construction

University of Exeter- Eastern- Budget: £6,200,000

Dynamic Purchasing System for Building Construction, Design and Build Construction, Demountable (Temporary) Buildings, Asbestos Removal and Demolition

Shropshire Council- South West- Budget: £625,000,000

National Train Control Centre (NTCC) – Building Construction

Iarnrod Eireann-Irish Rail- International- Budget: Undisclosed

This includes the following:

Further Support

The industry has a wide range of building tenders on offer. If you need support in your tendering efforts, contact us today.

Concrete Tenders and the Construction Industry

Posted on by John Hudson

Concrete Tenders and the Construction Industry

Great news – the construction industry is brimming with complex concrete tenders. This means that there is a wide range of construction contracts, suitable for both small and large organisations.

Additionally, the concrete industry is rapidly evolving. Buyers and suppliers must consider innovations, sustainable growth and their supply chains.

So what kind of concrete tenders might you find?

Possibilities include:

  • Kerbs and sleepers
  • Cement supply
  • Building material supply
  • Aggregates and ready mixed concrete
  • Concrete removal
  • Repairs and remedial works
  • Full refurbishments
  • Car park repairs

Opportunities also exist for concrete sub-categories such as:

  • Aggregates
  • Ready-made concrete
  • Rebar
  • Concrete blocks
  • Pre-cast concretes
  • Cement materials
  • Admixtures
  • Mortar

Categories that concrete tenders apply to can both public and private sector buyers. Opportunities to apply for concrete tenders exist in:

  • Retail and commercial spaces
  • Residential sites
  • Education and healthcare sites
  • Commercial sites and industrial buildings
  • Museums and public offices

The list really does go on. The concrete industry is rapidly expanding, and with that – tendering opportunities.

Broadly speaking, public sector buyers will advertise more framework tenders than private sector buyers. That does not mean to say that the public sector is short of single contract concrete tenders. Quite the opposite. Concrete tenders remain a high demand service provision across the changing urban landscape.

CDM 2015

On any concrete tenders project, you may be required to work with a range of other contractors. For example, architects, quantity surveyors, and other material suppliers.

Working with other stakeholders, you must be able to demonstrate your ability to collaborate, manage contracts, and create mobilisation plans which will effectively deliver the work.

Familiarity with CDM 2015 is also essential for many concrete construction projects. More formally named the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, contractors must now create a construction plan. Dependent on the scale of work involved, contractors may also need to inform relevant regulatory bodies, like HSE.

For large-scale tenders, a principal contractor will be assigned to the contract. Their responsibility is to effectively manage a project’s construction phase, ensuring it is streamlined, organised and compliant with legislation.

Other projects may require you to be familiar with a JCT contract in a non-principal contractor capacity. Familiarity with CDM regulations and JCT contracts are therefore essential in the concrete tendering process. It may sound obvious, but If you have JCT contract experience, your case studies are invaluable here.

It’s worth building up a bank of your key experience. A useful approach here could be to spend time creating a JCT experience spreadsheet. This could detail aspects including:

  • Project title and client;
  • Location;
  • Contract dates and values;
  • Contract management team (such as Contract Manager, Site Manager and Project Manager);
  • JCT specifics;
  • A short summary of your organisation’s roles and responsibilities;
  • The contract brief, with details such as budget and specification;
  • Details of the site, such as warehouse, hotel, etc.;
  • A summary of your specific working practices and methods;
  • Key referee contact details;
  • Any other added value which you provided to the project

This spreadsheet will support your case study development. It will also enable you to quickly gather all contract facts and figures from one place. The spreadsheet approach can save you time and reduce the number of back-and-forth emails between colleagues.

BIM

An understanding of Building Information Modelling (BIM) can be beneficial on some concrete tenders. This is because BIM facilitates better information sharing and data between parties involved in a project’s design and construction. Therefore, if you choose to tender as a concrete manufacturer, having product data sheets ready can be beneficial.

This data can be used to support BIM processes. Additionally, some buyers may require BIM as a specification requirement. Contributing to BIM data will also help deliver more effective sustainable processes during construction design. Therefore, the benefits of BIM to concrete tenders are:

  • That accurate data modelling is provided, which benefits all project contributors;
  • It can model the potential environmental and embodied carbon effect of concrete products and materials;
  • It can benefit BREEAM sustainability assessments.

Concrete and environmental considerations

Concrete is heavily linked to carbon, sustainability, and responsible sourcing processes. Within the tendering process, buyers may request concrete-specific standards and codes. These codes are standards for thermal performance, environmental impact, reinforcements, aggregates and more.

As a supplier, you should be familiar with standards and codes such as:  

  • Thermal Performance: Part L1A 2013
  • Target Fabric Energy Efficiency rates (TFEE)
  • BS EN 1992, Eurocode 2: Design of concrete structures
  • BS 8297: 2017 Design, manufacture and installation of architectural precast concrete cladding code of practice
  • BS EN 206: 2013 +A1:2016 – Concrete – specification, performance, production and conformity
  • BS 8500-2:2015+A2:2019 – Concrete – specifying and guidance for the specifier
  • BS EN 197-1:2011 – Composition, specification and conformity criteria for common cements.
  • BS EN 10080:2005 – Steel for the reinforcement of concrete – Weldable reinforcing steel – General
  • BES 6001 – Responsible sourcing of construction products

The above list is dependent on the type of service and material supplied. The key point here is ensure that your organisation is fully up-to-date with industry requirements. Not only this – you must be able to demonstrate these requirements.

You can do this through evidence, case studies, sample documents, training records, and similar. As a golden rule, the more specific and relevant your evidence is, the better.

PAS 91 

The PAS 91 is often essential to complete in construction bids. It is a standardised pre-qualification questionnaire for the construction industry. The PAS 91 is a comprehensive questionnaire which requests supplier information about:

  • Essential company and contact information
  • The company’s financial standing
  • Insurances in place
  • Business standing – verifying the organisation and staff integrity
  • Health and Safety policies

Whilst the PAS 91 is a very rigorous questionnaire, it does offer exemptions if you have specific accreditations. This is because those accreditations already demonstrate you have the required criteria. Certifications and memberships that may gain you an exemption to certain PAS 91 question responses include:

  • ISO 18001 International Health and Safety Management systems accreditation
  • Safety Schemes in Procurement (SSIP) membership
  • ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems accreditation
  • ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems accreditation

That is not to say that having these accreditations are essential to completing a PAS 91 questionnaire. It does however make the process a lot simpler! The reason is that these certifications save time and effort during the sometimes complex tendering process.

Bigger organisations who tender frequently would benefit from having these accreditations in place. Or, to be working towards accreditation.

There is a lot of cost, time and planning involved in becoming accredited. Smaller organisations must weigh up the benefits of each accreditation to the type of work they will tender for. Broadly speaking, having any level of ISO Quality Management Accreditation will benefit your organisation and the concrete tendering process.

The reason is that health and safety, quality and environmental quality management systems are organisation-wide processes. They demonstrate that you have processes, procedures and systems in place to consistently deliver a standard. These accreditations will enable you to discuss persuasively why your organisation is best placed to deliver concrete tenders.

To prepare for ISO accreditation requires a thorough review (and sometimes upheaval) of organisational processes. Careful consideration must be given to the end goal. This means not only thinking about accreditation but also that planning must be projected forward to maintaining those ISO management systems. This can be through people, planning, policies, training, company ethos, and documentation, for example.

Health & Safety 

As with any construction project, health and safety is absolutely paramount. When preparing concrete tenders, due consideration should be given to risk assessments, COSHH, RIDDOR and PPE.

Organisations must consider:

  • All employees
  • Members of the public
  • Vulnerable workers
  • Site visitors

Risks present during any concrete works may include:

  • Working at height
  • Manual handling
  • Machinery, plant and equipment
  • Harmful substances
  • Noise
  • Slips and falls

Companies are now expected to manage coronavirus risk. These essentially come down to managing risk in various capacities. The key points here are to identify, assess and control risks. Essential to this process is to document your findings and propose mitigation strategies.

How can we help you with your next concrete tender? Contact us today to find out more. We offer a full range of service which can improve your organisation’s potential.

At Hudson, we also provide a dedicated portal, Construction Tenders. On this portal, you can find the most relevant construction leads and up-to-date concrete tenders across the UK and further afield.

Signing up, you will receive the following benefits which will support your tendering efforts:

  • A dedicated Account Manager, who will answer your tendering queries;
  • Daily new tenders, relevant to you, direct to your inbox;
  • You can search this sector-specific portal using filters that you need. No more scouring across lots of different websites for relevant tenders. We have all construction contracts in the UK right here on one easy portal;
  • We don’t use computer algorithms to find concrete tenders, but dedicated Opportunity Trackers. This Opportunity Tracking team manually do all of the hard work for you;
  • Ultimately, our construction portal will save you time, money and effort. So what are you waiting for? Contact us today, to find your next ideal concrete tendering opportunity.

Get in Touch with Construction Tenders:

Sign up to Construction Tenders today and receive a daily bulletin straight to your inbox, containing all relevant small construction tenders uploaded that day.

Below are past concrete tenders sourced on our portal:

Concrete Survey

NHS South West – Acutes- South West- Budget: £70,000

Contractor Services for Steel and Concrete Repairs for Kingsway Fan Grill Replacement and Associated Works

Merseytravel- North West- Budget: Undisclosed

Framework Agreement for the Supply of Ready Mixed Concrete

City & County of Swansea- Wales- Budget: Undisclosed

Kirkby Wharfe New – Concrete Saddle

North Yorkshire County Council- Yorkshire and Humber- Budget: Undisclosed

Pre-cast Concrete L-Shape Retaining Walls

SCS JV- London- Budget: £2,500,000

This includes the following:

Further Support

The construction industry has a wide range of  Concrete Tenders on offer. If you need support in your tendering efforts, contact us today.

Building Maintenance Contracts for Tender

Posted on by John Hudson

Building Maintenance Contracts for Tender

There’s a sure-fire chance that if you live, work or own a building of some kind that it will need maintenance to some degree, regardless of whether your building is an old property in need of a major refurbishment or a brand-new build.

Fortunately, the public sector does too – leading to thousands of building maintenance contracts for tender going live each day. This is where you come in.

So, what can we do?

Typical building maintenance contracts for tender will cover, say, a council’s domestic or commercial properties. Both come with their own unique considerations, which are more than likely going to be reflected across the tender questions.

Councils may put out to tender for the likes of:

Not all public sector buyers are the same

Public sector procurement may follow the same guidelines – namely the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 – however buyers differ, and as such there can be a massive variety of contracts to choose from. Buyers can break different maintenance trades down into individual contracts and tenders or as large, overarching contracts or frameworks.

Larger contracts, usually covering many trades are typically released as frameworks, hereby a proportion of the top scoring tenders will be added to the buyer’s approved suppliers list. Thereafter, they are contacted on a call-off basis, where the top scorer is called first, the second called afterwards and so on.

Larger opportunities

Some larger contracts may be split into lots, in which you can bid for the separate services under the same contract. This is often great news for smaller firms or those who simply wish to cherry pick the services they wish to deliver – as such, you could opt to deliver gas servicing and painting and decorating for a local council as part of a much larger maintenance package.

Make sure it’s worth bidding for

Once you’ve found an opportunity that you’re interested in, it’s time to make a bid/no bid decision. Important things to consider when you’re interested in a bidding maintenance contract for tender is whether you:

  1. Meet the minimum financial criteria and stability to bid
  2. Can feasibly deliver the maintenance across the geographical area
  3. Satisfy any other minimum eligibility criteria

Sometimes, buyers will require as a minimum, certain accreditations to be held by yourselves or your subcontractors to be eligible to bid – this has included the likes of GasSafe, NICEIC and even ISO accreditations, such as ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015.

Building construction contracts for tender

Most tenders in the construction industry will name the form of contract under which you will operate within the tender documentation. Hitting the ‘control’ and ‘f’ keys will help you to discover which one will most likely be used.

Upon successfully tendering for a building construction contract, you will have to sign it and adhere to it. It’s important therefore to have a working knowledge of the types of contract you may have to undertake.

Contract notices

A contract notice provides information about building construction contracts for tender. In short, this is an advertisement for current tenders and therefore upcoming contracts. These are published on OJEU, and you can utilise the Government’s Contracts Finder tool to search for building construction contracts for tender. This is one of hundreds of websites where notices are published. Details often include:

  • Type of contract
  • Approximate/estimated value
  • Contract duration
  • Any lot-specific information.

Similarly, a prior information notice (PIN) flags up any upcoming procurement runs. PINs let potential bidders know that they can expect the release of a tender typically within the coming 12 months. This process is optional – it merely serves to accelerate the tender timetables, as bidders have had advance notice of a tender’s release.

It’s worth keeping an eye on contract notices and PINs so that you can be sure you’re ready for when desirable building construction contracts for tender are released.

Standard forms of contract

Everyone knows a contract sets out the relationship and expectations between two parties. Critically, building construction contracts for tender outline the allocation of risk and price. Contracts will make the most sense when read alongside certain tender documents such as terms and conditions, and/or the specification.

We have listed here the most popular building construction contracts for tender within the UK:

  • JCT (The Joint Contracts Tribunal)

JCT forms of contract are the most commonly found within the sector. It is a limited company which produces contracts and other supporting documentation, such as sub-contracts and forms of tender. JCT contracts cover the construction of all buildings, including but not limited to:

  • Standard and intermediate building contracts
  • Minor and major works contracts
  • Design and build contracts.

  • Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB)

The CIOB developed the Complex Projects Contract in 2013, but it was renamed to the Time and Cost Management Contract in 2015. Its primary aim is to organise time management in complex construction and engineering projects. Buyers may use this contract because it caters for BIM. This contract form entails close collaboration between multiple parties involved in the project. This is because of the contract’s aim to mitigate time and cost risk. Ultimately, this contract pushes for early completions of complex projects.

  • FIDIC (Fédération Internationale des Ingénieurs-Conseil)

This is a membership organisation with a suite of contracts at its disposal for works in:

  • Construction
  • Design and build
  • Turnkey projects.

The organisation’s primary aim is to promote the strategic goals of the construction industry. The contract forms here are internationally recognised, as you may have guessed from the French name.

  • NEC (The New Engineering Contract)

NEC4, the latest version of the NEC suite of contracts, became available in June 2017. NEC contracts have been available for over 20 years, and thus NEC4 is the culmination of feedback from the use of the contracts in practice. The NEC4 contract aims to streamline:

  • Contract administration
  • Risk management
  • Key terminology.

There are various changes between the NEC3 and the NEC4 contracts. These changes all have the purpose of promoting and facilitating collaboration between all parties.

There will be other forms of building construction contracts for tender, but these are far less commonly used.

Bespoke contracts

Some companies, usually private sector organisations, will use bespoke contracts which are written specifically for the project at hand. These are riskier than signing standard forms of contract and tend not to cover as many eventualities. As the contractor, you normally have little choice about the contract you sign. As such, it’s worth considering which formats of building construction contracts for tender you are willing to bid for.

CIC BIM Protocol

CIC BIM Protocol is an additional legal agreement that can be added to construction contracts, suitable for all Level 2 BIM projects. Its main purpose is to establish obligations, limitations and liabilities which support Level 2 BIM construction projects.

Components

But which documents might these types of contracts contain? Possibly all, or a combination of, the following:

  • Article of agreement and conditions of contract (what needs completing)
  • Drawings
  • Bills of quantities
  • Schedules of work
  • Specification(s)
  • Adjustments schedule (any changes agreed following the tender process)
  • An information release schedule
  • A model enabling amendment and/or BIM protocol (for BIM projects).

So, we can bid – what now?

Tender exercises of this nature will either follow the open or closed procedure. The former allows you to jump straight into the tender questions, often submitted with a pricing schedule and a selection questionnaire.

The latter however follows a strict two-stage process, in which potential bidders are vetted through a pre-qualification or selection questionnaire, which evaluates you on a basis of what you have done previously that is relevant to the contract you’re bidding for.

These are usually marked as pass/fail, rather than the scoring system in the latter invitation to tender (ITT) exercise.

The PAS-91

Being an area of construction, it’s entirely possible that the pre-qualification stage for a maintenance contract could entail the completion of a PAS-91, or “Publicly Available Specification 91”. These are becoming increasingly common in the construction sector, working as standardised, elongated PQQ.

The workloads associated with completing PAS-91s will vary depending on the accreditations you hold, which in turn will exempt you from completing certain sections. Should you be fortunate to hold Constructionline – particularly gold level – you should be in good stead to avoid most sections. See our lowdown on PAS-91s here.

The ITT exercise

Should you pass the selection questionnaire stage, it’s now a matter of explaining and selling your approach to delivering maintenance across the building(s) the client requires. As is standard practice for writing any bid, first make sure you have:

  • Read the specification, and as such understand what the client needs you to deliver on
  • Broken down each question and cross-referenced these with the specification
  • Have the time and resources to complete the questions fully.

The specification is often a good idea as to what the client is looking for in each response, and as such it’s worth breaking down your responses to cover the relevant information in the specification to cover as many marks as possible.

Themes and why…

Not only that, but the specification – and indeed the question sets – is a great way to break down the theme of a bid. The ‘theme’ of a bid, in this case, hints to certain areas where buyers may have had issues in the past. As such may award or prefer tenders that reference this point – we’re all human after all. Simple giveaways of themes can include:

  • Multiple questions regarding a specific subject (e.g. out of hours service)
  • Disproportionate weighting to certain sections
  • Extensive coverage in the specification.

By ascertaining the theme of the bid, you can then start to identify how you can appeal to the buyer’s needs and create a positive impression – a happy evaluator is likely to be a more generous one.

You should consider:

  • Method statements

Most buyers will want to understand your approach to delivering your services and their requirements. As such, you may have to respond to questions asking about:

  • Your proposed resourcing – qualifications, experience and training of staff
  • Your proposed approach and how this complies with the specification and/or industry regulations
  • Mobilisation – how you intend to ensure that the contract is ready to commence on the buyer’s stipulated date
  • How you comply with certain legislation/regulations
  • Quality assurance – such as minimising defects
  • How you minimise environmental impacts
  • Health and safety and/or risk management
  • Social value – how you can contribute to the social and economic wellbeing of the local community.

As part of these method statements, you may be asked to (or choose to) submit supporting documentation. This could be policies, procedures, accreditations, or CVs for your staff members. If there is a question about resources, it’s possible you’ll also have to attach copies of staff’s qualifications/certifications to prove their competency.

Tender documentation may often state the importance of the claims you make in your method statements. Some or all of the content could be inserted into the contract and therefore form legally binding commitments. It’s important to bear this in mind when creating your responses. However, this shouldn’t mean that you scrimp on demonstrating your ability to provide added value and deliver the services.

  • A pricing schedule

You will have to complete a pricing schedule as part of your tender response. Make sure you price your services competitively without making a loss.

Those releasing building construction contracts for tender will be similar to other public procurement buyers. Organisations could include:

  • Councils
  • Housing associations
  • NHS Trusts or CCGs.

Most buyers will have preferred contract forms – so for example, Durham County Council may only use NEC4 contracts. It might be worth considering which contract forms buyers use and bid for those with which you already have experience where possible.

Managing your resources

For any construction contract – there is a very high chance a buyer is going to want to you to demonstrate how you manage your resources. Questions can vary and can cover the likes of:

  • Staff allocation
  • Managing planned preventative maintenance schedules
  • Contract delivery teams
  • Resources and managing across the local area.

It’s best here, if you have one, to talk about any workflow management software you may have, which allows you to allocate staff based on certain criteria, such as proximity and skillset. Always consider also how you prioritise certain jobs, and the policies and procedures in place to ensure continuity in the event of peaks and troughs in workload.

Buyers will be looking for organisations who can demonstrate their ability to allocate resources effectively and efficiently, with the systems in place to manage multiple properties (in the case of social housing contracts), across difficult geography.

Health and safety

You are likely to score higher marks with formally recognised health and safety accreditations or management systems, for example, ISO 45001:2018, OHSAS 18001:2007, CHAS or SafeContractor. A formally recognised body will instil confidence in a buyer, and as such lead to higher marks.

Regardless, you are often required to answer health and safety questions regarding the likes of:

  • Operative health and safety competency and training
  • Risk assessments, method statements and safe systems of work
  • Ensuring staff and resident/building user safety out of hours
  • Compliance with statutory requirements and legislation, and how this is maintained.

Health and safety responses follow best practice, and as such reference to ISO 45001:2018 standards, for example, will be a good place to start. Areas of recent interest, especially following the introduction of the said ISO include considering employee mental health and a culture of behavioural health and safety across an organisation – not just a top-down approach.

Staff competence

Buyers, naturally, will want reassurance that the engineers conducting PPM for their gas boilers, for example, are being serviced by competent staff, recognised and registered with appropriate bodies, such as GasSafe. As such, training and competence questions may ask how your organisation:

  • Monitors and records staff training and accreditations
  • Ensures compliance with the latest legislation and best practice
  • Promotes staff retention and development.

Appointment process

Another area of consideration may be your approach to managing appointments. This could easily link to questions regarding resource management, with typical question areas including:

  • How do you monitor appointment times?
  • How do you mitigate no-access appointment?
  • How do we enable flexibility regarding appointments, around the needs of the customer?

The best approach here is to consider how you put the residents/building users in control of the appointment process, in a manner that is most convenient for them. Customer service is something that clients value, and even some statistics to back up your responses, such as customer satisfaction rates, will be good to put down here.

How can we help?

If you want to take out all of the hard work of sourcing building maintenance contracts for tender, why don’t you leave it to us by signing up to Construction Tenders.

Construction Tenders is your one-stop-shop for all your tendering needs. Updated by our opportunity trackers daily, the portal will allow you to filter down through the hundreds of tenders uploaded each day to identify the ones most relevant to your business, with refining fields from budget, to scope, to location.

Below are some building maintenance contracts sourced on our portal:

General Building Maintenance Work

Nottingham City Council- East Midlands- Budget: Undisclosed

Building Maintenance and Cleaning Services

Herefordshire Council- West Midlands- Budget: Undisclosed

Building Maintenance of Council Owned Buildings

Copeland Borough Council- North West- Budget: Undisclosed

Maintenance of Building Maintenance Units, Roof Top Safety and Fall Arrest Systems

Procurement and Logistics Service- Northern Ireland- Budget: Undisclosed

Provision of a General Building Maintenance Service

Northumbria Police- North East- Budget: £250,000

Get in Touch with Construction Tenders:

Sign up to Construction Tenders today and receive a daily construction leads bulletin straight to your inbox, containing all relevant small construction tenders uploaded that day.

This includes the following:

Further Support

Alternatively, if you’ve found an opportunity already, why not check out our Tender Writing services, in which we can work with you and produce a winning submission from scratch. If you’ve already written your construction bid and would like a second pair of eyes, try our Tender Mentor service.

Contact us today to see how we can help you grow your business.

Masonry Tenders

Posted on by John Hudson

Masonry Tenders – How to bid for Masonry Contracts

Are you looking to branch out and start tendering for masonry contracts? Then this blog is for you. We’ve compiled our inside knowledge of masonry tenders so that you know what’s what when it comes to bidding for these.

As you’ll know, masonry tenders will be released by buyers who need to procure stonework or stonework repairs.

What’s different about the public sector?

Public sector tenders are a great way to secure a sustainable income for your company and build up a credible portfolio of professional references

So, what should you expect from masonry tenders in the public sector?

Tender documentation

Tender documentation for masonry tenders will mostly remain standardised across buyers and contract types within the construction industry. Masonry tenders may include:

A PAS 91.

This is a standardised Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) for construction related procurement which is used nationally. PAS 91s are the construction sector’s answer to a typical PQQ you’ll find in public tenders for other sectors.

These ensure that buyers engage companies which are safe and ethical – particularly important in the construction industry.

PAS 91s have the same structure every time for ease of use across the sector. You’ll have to answer questions in the following sections:

  • Company structure and details;
  • Financial data;
  • Insurances;
  • Environmental management;
  • Quality management;
  • Equal opportunities and diversity;
  • Health and safety;
  • Project specific questions.

Don’t worry if this sounds overwhelming. Certain accreditations exempt you from answering some sections of a PAS 91, for example:

  • ISO 14001 exempts you from answering the Environmental Management section;
  • ISO 9001 exempts you from answering the Quality Management section;
  • CHAS or OHASAS 18001 exempts you from answering the Health and Safety section;
  • Constructionline Gold exempts you from the majority of questions asked.

Constructionline Bronze and Silver will exempt you from some sections too. It’s worth looking into obtaining these accreditations as it will streamline your bidding for masonry tenders.

If you’re still stuck, our bid writing consultants at Hudson Succeed could help.

Method statements

Buyers will want to see you demonstrate your competency through written quality responses or method statements. These will appear further down in the tender documentation. These method statements may cover the following subjects:

  • Your service delivery plan. How will you deliver the requirements within the specification? What machinery will you use? How long will it take you to complete each task?
  • Contract mobilisation. Buyers might want to know your processes for how you will ensure that the contract is ready to commence on the stipulated date. Activities to complete here may entail:
    • Any necessary recruitment;
    • Additional training;
    • Ordering of equipment and/or materials;
    • Internal and external meetings;
    • Site visits.

It may be beneficial here to include a mobilisation plan – either a table within the response document or a Gantt chart as an appendix. This acts as a visual representation of which tasks you’ll undergo and how long it will take you to complete them.

  • Your staff. Here, it may be applicable to list your proposed project team, as well as their experience and qualifications. Staff development may also be relevant in this question. Points to cover could include what training (induction and ongoing) staff must undergo. Comprehensive and documented training demonstrates that staff are competent to deliver buyers’ requirements.
  • Health and Safety. Such questions may cover risk management, approach to Health and Safety or live site management. Here you could attach relevant company documentation to show your compliance and procedures. It will be important to break Health and Safety questions down, as they often ask about a ‘theme’ which has multiple elements to cover. Create subheadings here to make sure you cover everything relevant.
  • Quality assurance. Achieving zero defects, maintaining a skilled workforce and functioning machinery, monitoring your supply chain. Some companies struggle to describe concrete quality assurance processes. It’s important to mention ‘real’ or ‘concrete’ processes that can be documented and not concepts that are not anchored in best practice.
  • Environmental considerations. How do you minimise the impact of your service on the environment? This may be your approach to vehicle use, your choice of suppliers or recycling initiatives, to name a few.
  • Business continuity. How can you ensure that you can still deliver your services in the instance of an unforeseen event, such as inclement weather or staff absences? Some companies may have a Business Continuity plan or policy which underpins their approach here. Business continuity is important to buyers because they want to make sure that their suppliers will be able to deliver the work on time and on budget.

A pricing schedule

Masonry tenders will certainly include a pricing schedule. Your success will be determined by a combination of your pricing and method statement scores. It’s important to think carefully about your pricing to ensure that you fill in all fields with appropriate rates. Price competitively, but not abnormally low. Buyers reserve the right to clarify or disqualify any rates they deem abnormally low. Be reasonable and go with your instinct. Remember that you know your business best and are therefore in the best position to price your services.

But which public sector organisations will be procuring masonry work?

It could be councils, hospitals, universities or housing associations. Private tenders could be from a wide range of organisations and could require masonry services on any type of building all across the country.

Masonry tenders may appear in a variety of contract formats. These are reflective of the scope of work and the buyer’s requirements. They could be:

  • Single supplier contracts. One winner takes all. This will be the bidder with the best price and quality score combined. Winning these is harder for start-ups or new companies.
  • Framework agreements. The best proportion of bidders are successful. You’ll then be called off to bid for works, so being successful on a framework doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll definitely deliver work.
  • Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPS). The best options for newer companies. DPS’ are like frameworks, but successful organisations are added to the register as and when. If you’re unsuccessful, you can apply again. Once successful, you’ll be called off for work like on a framework.

Things to bear in mind when drafting your responses

  1. Review the requirements

Make sure you look through the tender documentation so that you understand all requirements when it comes to submission. Equally, look over the specification and incorporate it into your responses. Directly addressing the buyer’s requirements is a sure-fire way to enhance your quality score.

Having a robust process for reviewing documentation will also save you time. It will prevent you from being halfway through creating a proposal and then realising you cannot meet one of the requirements.

  1. Check, check, and check again

This goes for the entirety of your tender response. PAS 91s have many fields to fill and certain attachments to append. Buyers have the right to disqualify your tender response if you don’t attach what is requested. Thoroughly review your response to ensure that you haven’t missed anything.

Similarly, if you’re the kind of person who leaves gaps to return to, make sure you’ve not left these blank! It goes without saying that complete tender submissions are the most advantageous, so don’t submit something you’ve not rigorously checked over.

  1. Give detail

For everything. This not only shows that you’ve read the specification, but also that you’ve thought about your processes. Drill down on your procedures and the way you’ll tackle the service delivery. Each sentence should have a point. Generic statements have no place in tender responses and should relate to how you’ll deliver requirements or describe the benefits of your service delivery.

  1. Plan your responses

Creating subheadings from the question will help with this. Planning responses will ensure that you give the best answer you can, while also keeping you on track. This will also give you an opportunity to have your wider team feed in where necessary, as it will identify gaps.

How can Hudson help you with Masonry Tenders?

If you’re searching for masonry tenders, Construction Tenders from Hudson Discover could help you. While other portals rely on CPV codes, Hudson Discover uses real people, Opportunity Trackers, to source daily contract opportunities for our portal customers. You’ll receive a daily email bulletin with all tenders relevant to your service offering. So, if you’re wondering how to find masonry tenders while also running your business, look no further than Construction Tenders.

Sign up to Construction Tenders today and receive a daily construction leads bulletin straight to your inbox. The bulletin contains all the relevant small, and larger, construction tenders that we have uploaded that day.

Below are some masonry tenders sourced on our portal:

Flint and Masonry Repair of Ancient Monuments

In-Tend Shared Services- Eastern- Budget: £100,000

Masonry (Brick and Block) Works Breadsall Primary School

Derbyshire County Council- East Midlands- Budget: Undisclosed

Underpinning, Repairs to Masonry and Reinstatement Works – Oakwood Road

London Borough of Hillingdon- London- Budget: £140,000

Masonry Repairs to the Art Block at Taunton Campus

Bridgwater and Taunton College- South West- Budget: Undisclosed

Masonry Repairs St Helen’s Church, Worcester

PCC All Saints, Worcester- West Midlands- Budget: £220,000

Our Opportunity Trackers manually scour and upload masonry tenders from hundreds of sites across the UK. You are able to filter the results by budget, location, keyword and more. This saves you even more time. Our Construction Tenders portal also hosts opportunities across the construction industry.

And if you’ve found a construction contract you like the look of but don’t know where to begin, have a chat with our expert consultants at Hudson Succeed. They have four support packages to help you see success in your construction bids. Get in touch for more information.

Need help writing your next tender?

If you don’t have the resources or time to write a winning bid, why not outsource it? Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, boasts an 87% success rate and has over 60 years of collective bidding experience. They offer four bid writing support packages to help you on the path to success. Whether you’re new to tendering, or simply need someone to proof your written response before you submit – we can help.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready programme is designed for those who have never tendered before. This 4-week programme works with you to ensure you have everything in place to tender successfully.

Tender Improvement

Tender Improvement can help if you’re already tendering but aren’t seeing success from your current efforts. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous submissions and supporting documents. They’ll give you feedback and guidance on how to improve, helping you to secure your next structural engineering tender.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written a tender and need someone to proofread it – Tender Mentor is for you. A Bid Writer will double-check it’s in line with the specification and free of any grammar or spelling mistakes.

Tender Writing

If you’ve found the perfect tender but don’t know where to start – we can help. Send the specification over to us and our Bid Team will do the rest. They’ll let you know what they need from you and provide you with a full breakdown. They’ll even submit it on your behalf, leaving you more time to focus on your business.

Get in touch to find out more information.

We actively source tenders for the following sub-sectors:

Check out some of our other blogs:

Insulation Tenders

Posted on by John Hudson

Insulation Tenders – 6 Things to Consider

Insulation is one of the most efficient means of providing energy savings to buildings. This includes homes, business premises or community centres. According to the Energy Saving Trust, the average three-bedroom semi-detached house could save £310 on energy bills with proper loft and cavity wall insulation.

In recent years, insulation has been a central feature of the increasing public awareness of the need to conserve heat and energy. Rising energy prices and climate change will continue to be major considerations in for any construction project.

To encourage the installation of insulation, the government launched the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme in 2013. The scheme requires large gas and electricity suppliers to cover all or part of the cost of energy-efficiency measures, including insulation. Under the Home Cost Reduction Obligation (HHCRO), obligated suppliers must provide measures which improve the ability of household to heat domestic homes. This includes actions that result in heating savings. For example, the replacement or repair of a boiler, cavity wall insulation and loft insulation.

The scheme has led to an increase in public spending in the sector. Meaning installers have a golden opportunity to take on more jobs and increase revenue by securing insulation tenders.

The ECO

The Energy Company Obligation (ECO) is a government energy efficiency scheme in Great Britain. It aims to help reduce carbon emissions and tackle fuel poverty. Since the ECO was launched in January 2013, 2.3 million energy efficiency measures have been installed in approximately 1.8m homes. This is helping to;

  • Reduce people’s energy bills;
  • Make homes more energy-efficient;
  • Save carbon;
  • and make our energy system more resilient.

The latest scheme facilitated by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, ECO3, was launched in December 2018 and will run until 31 March 2022. With the transition from ECO2 to ECO3, there has been a big shift in focus from replacing older heating systems to insulating homes as much as possible. This is in an effort to reduce the carbon tonnes used in the UK. This has led to an increase in insulation tenders available via the UK procurement system.

The government are focusing the entire scheme to support low income, vulnerable and fuel poor households. Increasing the proportion of the scheme that can be delivered under local authority flexible eligibility to 25%. Meaning insulation tenders are being regularly circulated by local authorities and housing associations.

Almost all forms of insulation are covered under the ECO scheme, including:

  • Cavity wall insulation;
  • Gas boiler replacement;
  • Loft insulation;
  • Damp proofing;
  • Solid wall insulation.

The Association of the Conservation of Energy (ACE) estimates up to 33,000 people are currently delivering ECO and the Green Deal. However, the latest government statistics show that the number of home insulation measures carried out this year under ECO are 50% below target.

There are over 7 million homes requiring solid wall insulation, over 5 million homes requiring cavity wall insulation and 7 million homes with inadequate loft insulation. Meaning there are and will continue to be insulation tender opportunities for construction firms of all sizes as a result. Due to this major shortfall on expectations, public spending will look toward trusted, accredited and experienced suppliers to guarantee progress toward these goals.

Within ECO3, the government will support a greater diversity of products and installations by allowing up to 10% of a supplier’s obligation to be met through innovation. They will allow and encourage suppliers to do this under two options: Demonstration Actions and Innovation Score Uplifts. Meaning suppliers will be more likely to see success in their insulation tenders by describing innovative processes in their response to qualitative questions.

As governmental environmental commitments increase – specific environmental questions will appear in the tendering process across all sectors. However, for construction bids, including insulation tenders, this may dominate the qualitative side. Therefore, suppliers must incorporate sustainable practices and methods into their service delivery, in order to be considered by buyers.

Top tip:

When applying for insulation tenders, it is essential to evidence your claims and ensure they are measurable. This must be in solid facts and figures. There is little value in providing vague or airy statements without the ability to demonstrate this to buyers. Evidencing such features will present your business as having transparency and integrity.

Why not evidence your capacity by attaining industry certification and accreditation.

National Insulation Association (NIA)

The NIA represents the insulation industry within the UK. Members vary from manufactures to system designers, to installers of insulation solutions to homes and business premises. Becoming part of such an organisation demonstrates to buyers your company’s commitment to maintaining and raising standards within the insulation industry. The NIA can present:

  • A competitive advantage over other suppliers;
  • Access to education and training opportunities;
  • Access to industry events and conferences;
  • Access to innovations and new developments;
  • Networking opportunities which could expand your capacity.

Membership to such an accredited association will add to your CV. It will place your organisation above competitors, on a pedestal alongside other industry leaders.

British Standards & Thermal Insulation

Perhaps you could consider attaining some relevant industry accreditations, such as:

  • BS5250: 1989 – Control of condensation in buildings;
  • BS8000: Part 8: 1994 – Code of practice for plasterboard partitions and dry linings;
  • BS8212: Part 1: 1995 – Code of practice for dry lining and partitioning using gypsum plasterboard.

Passivhaus

It is beneficial for construction companies to consider Passivhaus, particularly those who specialise in insulation. Passivhaus certification is highly regarded by procurement buyers seeking environmentally-friendly construction businesses. The key here is that Passivhaus is more economical to implement during a building design phase. It can be potentially more costly to refurbish a space later on, in line with this standard.

Passivhaus is a rigorous, voluntary house-building standard. It focusses on energy efficiency and reducing the energy needed to run a comfortable home. Passivhaus was born not only out of a desire to build more energy-efficient homes but to reduce the amount of energy needed. They also work to minimise the ecological footprint that house-building leaves. The result of Passivhaus building is low impact homes that save the owners money.

Perhaps the most important aspect of Passive House is insulation. Buildings which can be certified as Passivhaus can range in size and scope. They are designed to be so efficient that the need for internal heating is negligible. This means that the building does not lose heat. So much so, that rooms maintain pleasant ambient air temperature within the space. 

Passivhaus is important to the construction sector because more heat-efficient buildings means less CO2. For one building alone – this makes a difference. For larger housing contracts and frameworks – the cumulative CO2 saving is more significant. Designing houses to this standard makes sense, both financially and environmentally.

Insulation Tenders

Insulation tenders, much like most construction sector tenders commonly follow a two-stage tendering process. These two stages are known as the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire and the Invitation to Tender.

PQQ

The PQQ is a series of questions you will need to answer regarding;

  • Your level of experience;
  • Ability to complete the works successfully;
  • and financial stability.

Your answers to this first part of the bid will enable the client to decide if you can deliver the quality standards they require.

The PQQ is a standard form which you will come across regularly when responding to insulation tenders (and more widely).

The purpose of the PQQ is to reduce the number of bidders to just those who can deliver the project. This saves the client a lot of time and cost. It also reduces competition for you. Your bid is only in competition against a few other suppliers for the required works.

Invitation to Tender

If your bid is shortlisted, you will receive an invitation to tender (also known as an ‘ITT’).

Insulation tenders often include the following information:

  • Letter of Invitation
  • Invitation to Tender document
  • Form of Tender
  • Preliminaries
  • Details on the Form of Contract and Contract Conditions
  • Specifications
  • Design Drawings
  • Tender Pricing Document
  • Associated Appendices

The ITT stage is your opportunity to demonstrate your company’s capability and capacity to deliver the required works.

Pushing forward

If you are dedicated to a construction contract, then investigating which public sector contracts and frameworks are suitable for you to apply for is certainly an advisable place to start.

Remember, when tendering in the public sector, buyers will need to prove they’re spending public money reasonably. Consequently, you will need to be prepared to evidence the following:

Get in touch with Construction Tenders

Sign up to Construction Tenders today and receive a daily bulletin straight to your inbox. The bulletin contains all the relevant small, and larger, construction leads that we have uploaded that day. Our Opportunity Trackers manually trawl thousands of websites across the UK, uploading relevant construction tenders. You can filter the results by budget, location, keyword and more.

Below are some insulation tenders sourced on our portal:

Cladding and Insulation Removal and Replacement 

Citizen- West Midlands- Budget: £250,000

Responsive Repairs – Insulation & Extraction 

North Tyneside Council- North East- Budget: Undisclosed

External Wall Insulation Pilot Scheme

Northumberland County Council- North East- Budget: £75,000

Kirriemuir ACF –Façade – External Wall Insulation System

Highland Reserve Forces and Cadets Association- Scotland- Budget: £17,000

Noise Insulation Contract for Roads Investment Strategy 2

Highways England- Unspecified- Budget: £9,300,000

This includes the following:

The construction industry has a wide range of health and safety tenders on offer. If you need support in your tendering efforts, contact us to find out how we can help your business grow.

Need help writing your next tender?

If you don’t have the resources or time to write a winning bid, why not outsource it? Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, boasts an 87% success rate and has over 60 years of collective bidding experience. They offer four bid writing support packages to help you on the path to success. Whether you’re new to tendering, or simply need someone to proof your written response before you submit – we can help.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready programme is designed for those who have never tendered before. This 4-week programme works with you to ensure you have everything in place to tender successfully.

Tender Improvement

Tender Improvement can help if you’re already tendering but aren’t seeing success from your current efforts. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous submissions and supporting documents. They’ll give you feedback and guidance on how to improve, helping you to secure your next structural engineering tender.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written a tender and need someone to proofread it – Tender Mentor is for you. A Bid Writer will double-check it’s in line with the specification and free of any grammar or spelling mistakes.

Tender Writing

If you’ve found the perfect tender but don’t know where to start – we can help. Send the specification over to us and our Bid Team will do the rest. They’ll let you know what they need from you and provide you with a full breakdown. They’ll even submit it on your behalf, leaving you more time to focus on your business.

Get in touch to find out more information.

We actively source tenders for the following sub-sectors:

Check out some of our other blogs:

 

Health and Safety Tenders – Everything you Need to Know

Posted on by John Hudson

A Guide to Health and Safety Tenders

The UK construction sector 

The construction industry in the UK is enormous. According to the Office for National Statistics, there are over 325,000 registered construction businesses. This covers categories including not only construction but also civil engineering and specialist works. With that, comes a wide range of health and safety requirements which must be met. 

The health and safety industry

Effective health and safety is absolutely crucial for any construction business to operate. Fortunately, there is a wide range of rules, legislation and guidance available from, for example:

  • The UK Government
  • CDM Regulations 2015
  • CHAS and SSIP
  • Constructionline
  • The Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
  • The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act
  • Building Regulations
  • Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR)
  • The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH)

A heavily regulated industry, opportunities are available within both the public and private construction sector. These may include individual contract opportunities, Dynamic Purchasing Systems and Framework Agreements. 

What kind of Health and safety tenders are available?

There are health and safety tenders available in the following categories:

  • Training
  • Consultancy
  • Management

Sub-sectors that you might find health and safety tenders include:

How can professional health and safety services benefit buyers in the construction industry?

Buyers seek professional consultancy, training and management services for many reasons:

  • To optimise the health and safety of their staff and customers
  • Compliance with current legislation
  • To provide evidence of health and safety protocols
  • They are seeking to expand their business and must establish better management systems and structures

Therefore, procurement through health and safety tenders may provide them with the following benefits:

  • Increasing staff morale and leadership within the workplace
  • Developing an organisation’s culture centred around health and safety
  • Improved staff confidence and retention in the organisation
  • Lower insurance costs
  • Overall reduction of health and safety risks and incidents on a daily basis 

What experience should you have? 

Within the construction sector, buyers will seek a supplier who can provide a comprehensive range of services. This includes proven experience and ability in the following areas:

Review and development of health and safety policies

In consultancy and management roles, you may be expected to know which health and safety requirements are essential. Examples include:

  • Training records
  • Accident reporting and investigations
  • Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
  • First Aid
  • Audits
  • Monitoring and surveillance
  • Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH)
  • Fire Safety
  • CDM regulations
  • Working at height

As a supplier, you must demonstrate that you thoroughly understand workplace health and safety in context. This includes how these processes are implemented, improved and communicated in the workplace.

Health and safety training

In health and safety training roles, you must demonstrate a similar knowledge. Additionally, having experience delivering training in a range of contexts is beneficial.

For example, this could include training delivered through seminars, digital learning platforms, and on-site groups. You must be capable of training individuals at all levels, from operatives to directors.

Developing case studies is an excellent way to demonstrate health and safety training in context. A useful and effective tool is the STAR method. STAR means Situation, Task, Action and Result. Writing your health and safety training experience under these headings will ensure you demonstrate your skills with clarity. Developing a good bank of persuasive, clear case studies will give your organisation a competitive edge.

ISO 45001 Health and Safety Management System

Some buyers may seek external support for their own organisation to gain accreditation. This is suitable for larger organisations who already implement many formal processes and procedures. It may also benefit smaller organisations.

For example, those who may struggle to fully understand the requirements of a health and safety management system. This is where high-quality health and safety consultation services can shine.

ISO 45001 has replaced OHSAS 18001 as an international standard. The focus of this management system is to create working conditions which are safe. The ISO 45001 system was designed for integration with other ISO systems. For example, ISO 14001 and ISO 9001. Therefore, organisations who are already accredited with these ISOs may find the accreditation process for ISO 45001 easier.

Typically, organisations seeking support with their health and safety tenders may require consultation and training with:

  • Carrying out an internal audit
  • Understanding and solidifying what the organisation seeks to achieve, through a safety management system
  • Developing their internal policies and procedures for compliance
  • Carrying out a gap analysis to assess any organisational issues and provide solutions

Health and safety tenders and COVID-19 

It goes without saying – responding to COVID-19 concerns is at the forefront of each organisation’s priorities. This may continue for the foreseeable future. Therefore, the scope for health and safety tenders is rapidly expanding.

The ISO organisation is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic by the development of a new ISO: 45003. This is scheduled for publication in 2021 next year. ISO 45003 will build upon ISO 45001, with a focus on psychological health and safety.

Knowledge of new legislation – COVID-19 

Essential to health and safety tenders going forward will be the management of COVID-19 risk. This includes:

  • Construction working and outdoor work
  • Working in people’s homes
  • Working in warehouses and factories
  • Working with vehicles

On 11th May the Government published COVID-19 guidance for the workplace. This provides protocols and steps for businesses to operate safely during the pandemic.

Therefore, you must be able to evidence, for example:

  • How you keep up-to-date with legislation and guidance
  • Knowledge of relevant legislation, acts and guidance to the workplace you will be providing services
  • Your strategies and recommendations for the buyer which will maximise not only health and safety, but also value

Crucial to COVID-19 health and safety legislation is different guidance for different regions. Therefore, it is important to differentiate between guidance for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Occupational Safety and Health Consultants Register (OSHCR)

Many health and safety consultants are registered with the Occupational Safety and Health Consultants Register (OSHCR). However, this is not a requirement for every health and safety tender. It does provide additional value to your organisation when tendering and a competitive edge.

The OSHCR is recommended by HSE (Health and Safety Executive). It is worth bearing this in mind – when developing specifications, buyers will refer to best practice.

Consultants registered with the OSHCR can provide additional assurances to their clients. Membership demonstrates that you are fully committed to professional standards. It requires chartered status or membership with a professional body. This can include qualifications at degree level. You must also have in place appropriate insurance, relevant to the consultancy services you provide. 

CHAS

Some organisations may seek support with CHAS (Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme) accreditation through health and safety tenders. CHAS accreditation is essential for many construction companies to tender for work. It demonstrates to their own clients that they are fully compliant in a range of modules.

For example:

  • Health and Safety
  • Environment
  • Equality and Diversity
  • Finances and business standing

A key element of accreditation with CHAS is risk management. Suppliers must confirm, demonstrate and provide evidence of a wide range of policies and protocols to qualify. Providing suppliers support with CHAS accreditation can prove beneficial and lucrative for both consultant and supplier. This is because the foundations for good practice are established, long term.

CDM Regulations 2015 

The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 are crucial for construction health and safety. Many construction professionals will already be fully familiar with the guidance and its application.

However, some construction organisations may seek external professional guidance during a construction project.

CDM regulations are more than guidelines. They are expected health and safety duties which construction companies must adhere to during all project stages. The purpose of these regulations is to ensure that each project is:

  • completed in a way which ensures the safety of everyone on site
  • ensures that the building, site or land is safe to use
  • providing value for money and longevity following product sign-off

There is a lot to consider when approaching health and safety tenders. Therefore, it is essential to demonstrate appropriate evidence, experience and relevant knowledge. To improve your prospects when tendering for consultancy, management or training bids, reflect on the following key points:

  • Your own bank of evidence is just as essential as those you develop for your clients.

These roles require many of the qualities of tender writing. This includes organising your evidence to ensure it is fully accounted for and relevant to your aims. Insurance, finances, certifications, memberships, CVs and policies are essential.

  • Have a clear company structure in place.

This applies whether you are providing consultancy services as an individual or an organisation. Clarify roles and responsibilities of each person who will provide services. Establish who is accountable for communications and actions.

  • Consider how you can add value to the buyer’s organisation, additional to specification requirements.

For example, do you have particular links to additional health and safety resources that competitors may lack? What processes do you have which will reduce the time spent on a task, whilst increasing quality?

Get in Touch with Construction Tenders:

Sign up to Construction Tenders today and receive a daily construction leads bulletin straight to your inbox, containing all relevant small construction tenders uploaded that day. Our Opportunity Trackers manually scour and upload construction tenders from thousands of websites daily. You’re able to filter the results by keyword, location, budget and more – saving you even more time.

Below are some health and safety tenders sourced on our portal:

Health and Safety Compliance Framework

Central & Cecil Housing Trust- London- Budget: Undisclosed

07-12-2020

Health and Safety Consultancy

The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames- South East- Budget: £12,000

15-01-2021

Health and Safety Management System

Citizen- West Midlands- Budget: Undisclosed

22-01-2021

Health and Safety Services

Birmingham City Council- West Midlands- Budget: Undisclosed

15-01-2021

Health and Safety Support for the Council’s Revitalisation of Health and Safety Programme and Implementation of a Compliance Assurance System

Cheshire West and Chester- North West- Budget: Undisclosed

23-02-2021

Need help writing your next tender?

If you don’t have the resources or time to write a winning bid, why not outsource it? Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, boasts an 87% success rate and has over 60 years of collective bidding experience. They offer four bid writing support packages to help you on the path to success. Whether you’re new to tendering, or simply need someone to proof your written response before you submit – we can help.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready programme is designed for those who have never tendered before. This 4-week programme works with you to ensure you have everything in place to tender successfully.

Tender Improvement

Tender Improvement can help if you’re already tendering but aren’t seeing success from your current efforts. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous submissions and supporting documents. They’ll give you feedback and guidance on how to improve, helping you to secure your next structural engineering tender.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written a tender and need someone to proofread it – Tender Mentor is for you. A Bid Writer will double-check it’s in line with the specification and free of any grammar or spelling mistakes.

Tender Writing

If you’ve found the perfect tender but don’t know where to start – we can help. Send the specification over to us and our Bid Team will do the rest. They’ll let you know what they need from you and provide you with a full breakdown. They’ll even submit it on your behalf, leaving you more time to focus on your business.

Get in touch to find out more information.

We actively source tenders for the following sub-sectors:

Check out some of our other blogs: