Issue 1 · 29 September 2026

82 notices scanned · 4 worth your time

Four this week from 82 open notices. One of them shuts the day this lands, whatever the notice says — which is exactly why you read the documents, not the headline.

Govia Thameslink (TSGN)

Southern track and rail systems, phase 3

Value: £18m
Term: 48 months, 4 bundles
Region: South East — Selhurst, Brighton, Horsham, Streatham Hill
Closes: 29 Sep 2026 (RISQS expression of interest) · tender 30 Oct
Sector: Civils

Bid if

Gate: The notice says it closes 20 November. It does not. The tender list is built from a RISQS expression of interest that shuts today, 29 September, and you need to hold C.B.1.1 Plain Line and C.B.2.1 Switches & Crossings to be on it. Registering on the e-tendering portal does not get you in. £10m public and employer's liability on top.
Fit: Four bundles, bid any or all: install-only junctions with materials already bought, design-and-install junctions, like-for-like lineside signalling cable, and plain line renewals in depot sidings. All of it inside live train maintenance depots, with part-finished work from earlier phases that you inherit and have to assure. This is for a firm already working on the railway, not one trying to get onto it.
Scoring: Technical 50, commercial 40, social value 10. Price is a locked formula: lowest whole-life cost scores 40, anything over double the lowest scores zero. Every technical question is marked 0–5 with tight page limits, and ties go to technical. Best and final offers in late November.
Price: NEC4 Option A — a lump sum, so you carry the quantities. The amended clause Z7.1 puts actual site and physical conditions on you with no price adjustment, which on old depot track means ballast, formation and buried services you have not seen. £1,500 a day delay damages per section, 5% retention with nothing retention-free, and unlimited liability for damage to the client's property. Price the ground risk or do not bid.
Verdict: Bid if you already hold both RISQS codes and you have priced depot ground before — and register your interest today: the door shuts on the 29th, not in November.

Natural Resources Wales

Forestry infrastructure construction and maintenance framework 2027–2031

Value: £40m (framework, no guaranteed spend)
Term: 4 years
Region: Wales — 4 regional lots
Closes: 21 Oct 2026, 17:00
Sector: Civils

Bid

Gate: SSIP accreditation covering the work, three relevant contracts in five years, and the usual policy set. Then three scored selection questions with a 50 floor on each: forestry experience (three examples, at least one bridge or culvert, aggregate production or new stone access), CDM, and NEC3/NEC4 short contract administration. Miss 50 on any one and you are out before price is opened.
Fit: Forest roads, culverts, bridges and stone access to support the timber harvest on the Welsh Government estate. Six to eight places per lot, bid up to three lots, win at most two. Jobs under £50k can be direct-awarded on price, capability and location — which is where a regional SME with a depot close by wins. NRW can also steer work to suppliers who have won nothing yet.
Scoring: Price 60, quality 40, with a 50 floor on every quality question. Two worked example jobs — a culvert in a watercourse, and construction on lowland versus upland peat — carry 70% of the quality marks. Write those two properly and the rest follows.
Price: Schedule of rates fixed for 12 months, then indexed annually — and it goes down if the index is negative, with no backdating. Check which diesel rate NRW expects: red diesel is restricted for most construction since 2022 and the price model splits it out. Lot 4 is only about 11% of spend, roughly £4.4m over four years across six suppliers, so pick lots on where the money is.
Verdict: Bid — plenty of places, a realistic route in for a regional contractor, and it is won or lost on two worked examples you can write from jobs you have already done.

Halton Borough Council

Highway surface treatments term contract

Value: £4.4m over the full 4 years (extension included)
Term: 3 years + 1, the 4th at the council's option
Region: North West — Halton
Closes: 22 Oct 2026, 15:00
Sector: Streetworks

Bid if

Gate: NHSS Sector Schemes 7, 12B, 12D and 13 are mandatory, for you and your subcontractors, with RSTA-endorsed cards for surface treatment operatives and LANTRA for traffic management. £10m employer's, public and product liability, professional indemnity £2m a claim and £5m aggregate. Central Digital Platform registration before you bid. If you do not hold the four schemes now, you will not hold them by 22 October.
Fit: Sprays, surface dressing, slurry and micro asphalt, sole supplier, starting April 2027. You assess condition, choose the treatment, build the annual programme with the council and carry the aftercare — asset management, not a rates job. No guaranteed volume. Slurry on residential footways is in scope.
Scoring: Price 30, quality 50, interview 20 — not the 70/30 the notice suggests. Contract management is 15 of the quality marks and aftercare and defects another 10. Score under 3 on two questions and the council can exclude you. Social value is asked but scored at zero; it becomes your KPIs instead.
Price: NEC4 Option B with a bill of quantities, priced against historic and anticipated work, with inflation linked to the highways maintenance index. The council has since confirmed the £4.4m is an estimate across all four years, so about £1.1m a year, and that it will not publish a split between surface dressing and micro asphalt — it moves with road condition, usually more surface dressing than micro. Your rates have to hold whichever way the mix falls, in a contract whose fourth year is not guaranteed. Weather is measured at Liverpool airport, which matters in a surface dressing season. Year four is decided on your performance at the end of year two.
Verdict: Bid if you already hold all four sector schemes and you run surface treatments now — otherwise it is a no, because the accreditation cannot be bought in four weeks.

Places for People and Anchor (joint)

EV charging infrastructure — design, install, operate

Value: £12.4m–£40m (the documents disagree)
Term: 10 years + 5
Region: UK-wide, including Scotland
Closes: 19 Oct 2026, 12:00
Sector: Renewables

No bid

Gate: ISO 9001, 14001 and 27001, plus 45001 or SSIP. OCPP-compatible chargers and back office, OZEV authorised, NICEIC or NAPIT. £10m employer's, public and product liability, £5m professional indemnity and £1m cyber. A financial tool that needs 60 on each ratio and 240 overall, with turnover measured against the annual contract value.
Fit: One supplier across both housing groups, exclusive, end to end: site survey, design, supply, install, DNO liaison, software, payments, customer support and maintenance, plus adopting existing charge points. It is a charge point operator's contract with an installation workstream inside it. An electrical contractor on its own does not fit.
Scoring: Quality 70, price 30, over two price stages, then dialogue and a best and final offer. The pre-qualification and the tender are both due on 19 October, but pre-qualification results do not come until 15 November — so you write the whole tender before you know if you passed.
Price: The buyer's own documents give 30,000 charge points in one place, 12,400 in another and 35,800 in a third, with no guaranteed value and no retrofit budget for the first three years. The working average is £400 per new-build charge point. Test that number against your own costs before you do anything else.
Verdict: No bid for most SMEs — the certification bar is heavy, nobody can tell you the volume, and £400 a point leaves very little for a fifteen-year operating promise.

Issue 1 · 29 September 2026

Southern track and rail systems, phase 3

Forestry infrastructure construction and maintenance framework 2027–2031

Highway surface treatments term contract

EV charging infrastructure — design, install, operate

Get it before the deadline, not after