Issue 4 · 20 October 2026

53 notices scanned · 5 worth your time

Five from 53 open notices in our sectors, and telecoms is back with a hospital cabling contract whose own notice publishes two different sets of weightings. The best opportunity for a small firm this week is a framework with unlimited places and county-sized lots. The no bid is a road that turns out to be railway sidings.

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust

Data cabling and passive infrastructure services

Value: £8,750,000 ex VAT (£10,500,000 inc)
Term: 5 years + 2 — 9 Jan 2027 to 8 Jan 2034
Region: West Midlands — Birmingham
Closes: 10 Nov 2026, 17:00 · enquiries close 2 Nov, 12:00
Sector: Telecoms

Bid if

Gate: The financial and technical conditions both read 'as per SQ', so the thresholds are in the selection questionnaire on the Atamis Health Family portal. The one capability the notice does name is experience of both traditional passive networks and Passive Optical LAN — POLAN. A cabling firm that has only ever pulled copper and structured cabling fails that line before anyone reads its price. Above threshold, open procedure, flagged as suitable for SMEs and VCSEs.
Fit: Maintenance, support, supply, break/fix and relocations across the trust's IT and estates cabling — copper, fibre and telephony, plus the comms cabinets — in a live acute hospital estate. That is a regional structured-cabling and fibre contractor with POLAN on its record and engineers who can work in clinical areas under the trust's permits. Seven years of it, so the trust is choosing a long-term partner, not buying a job.
Scoring: The notice publishes its weightings twice and they do not agree. The description says Technical 50%, Social Value 10%, Commercial 40%. The weighting description directly beneath it says Technical 55%, Social Value 10%, Commercial 35%. Both say the full methodology is in the ITT. Five points moving between quality and price is the difference between a price-led and a quality-led bid. Ask which is right before 2 November, and get the answer in writing.
Price: £8.75m across up to seven years is roughly £1.25m a year, but break/fix and relocation work is demand-led, so read the schedule of rates for how much is actually committed. The contract is classed as goods, not works or services, which is worth checking against how your insurance and your terms describe what you do.
Verdict: Bid if you can evidence POLAN alongside traditional passive cabling and you already work in live clinical estates. First, get the trust to confirm which of its two sets of weightings applies.

Carmarthenshire County Council (lead) with Ceredigion, Neath Port Talbot, Pembrokeshire and Swansea

South West Wales Regional Civil Engineering Contractors Framework 2027

Value: £800m across the framework — shown against every lot
Term: 3 years + 1 — 8 Feb 2027 to 7 Feb 2031
Region: South West Wales — Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Neath Port Talbot, Swansea
Closes: 26 Nov 2026, 14:00 · enquiries close 19 Nov, 14:00
Sector: Civils

Bid

Gate: Sixteen lots, unlimited places on the framework and a 0% supplier fee. The gates are procedural. You need an eTenderWales registration (project 61783) and a Supplier Qualification Information Share Code from your profile on Find a Tender. You submit one overarching qualification ITT plus a separate technical and commercial ITT for every lot you want. And the lot rules exclude each other: Lot 1 bidders cannot bid Lots 3 to 13, you can only be awarded Lot 1 or the county lots 2A to 2D, and bridge maintenance and landscaping exclude the general civils lots.
Fit: This one is built for small regional firms. Lot 1 is resource work up to £100k alongside the councils' own direct labour — kerbing, fencing, masonry, concrete repairs, emergency response. Lots 2A to 2D are civils schemes up to £1m, one per county. Above that come the £1–3m and £3m-plus lots and twelve specialist lots, from public lighting and surfacing to traffic management, marine works and bridge maintenance.
Scoring: The weighting moves with the lot. Lot 1 is Price 90, Quality 10. The county lots are Price 80, Quality 20. The two larger civils lots are Price 60, Quality 40, and every specialist lot is Price 70, Quality 30. Work out which lot your rates win, not which one sounds biggest.
Price: Every lot shows the same £800m, because each lot's figure is the whole framework's anticipated spend, with no guarantee of any work. Ignore the headline. A place on Lot 2B is worth whatever Carmarthenshire calls off, by direct award or mini-competition, and nothing more. Business Wales runs a free webinar on this framework on 3 November — book it.
Verdict: Bid. Unlimited places, no fee and county lots sized for local firms. Choose your lots carefully, because Lot 1 and the larger lots rule each other out.

Cambridge City Council

Jesus Green riverside wall repairs

Value: £1,200,000 ex VAT (£1,440,000 inc)
Term: 12 months — 4 Dec 2026 to 30 Nov 2027, extendable to 31 Mar 2028
Region: Cambridgeshire — Cambridge
Closes: 6 Nov 2026, 16:00 · enquiries close 23 Oct, 18:00
Sector: Civils

Bid if

Gate: No turnover threshold, insurance level or accreditation is published. The real gate is in the first line of the scope: full design for the works. This is design and build, so you need a designer you can stand behind, and the design liability that comes with it. Submission is on ProContract. Below threshold, open competition, flagged as suitable for SMEs.
Fit: Stabilise and repair the existing river wall, drive a new sheet pile wall with infill and capping, tie it into the old wall, rework the outfalls and pump-out, replace the lido's foul drainage, then put the footpaths, paving and riverbank back — with material delivered and stored from the river and the public kept moving round you on Jesus Green. A civils contractor that has driven sheet piles from the water before, with a temporary works designer on call.
Scoring: Quality 60, Price 40 — the most quality-led tender in this issue, and rarer than it should be. The buyer is telling you it cares more about how the wall is designed and built than about the number, so the method statement and the design are where you win or lose.
Price: £1.2m for design, piling and a year on a riverbank in the middle of a busy city park. River access, temporary works and keeping the public safe through a full twelve months will eat more of that than the steel does. Enquiries close on 23 October, three days after this issue — if you need a site visit or the existing wall survey, ask now.
Verdict: Bid if you can design and drive sheet piles from the river and you will carry the design liability. Quality is worth 60%, so this rewards the better method, not the lower price.

Wirral Council

A8 in-situ recycling patching works

Value: £875,000 ex VAT (£1,050,000 inc)
Term: 3 years — 1 Dec 2026 to 30 Nov 2029
Region: Merseyside — Wirral
Closes: 9 Nov 2026, 12:00 · enquiries close 30 Oct, 12:00
Sector: Streetworks

Bid if

Gate: Nothing is published — no turnover, insurance or accreditation — and, unlike most notices this week, no SME flag either. The gate is the method itself. The contract is for in-situ recycling patching, which reheats and reworks the existing asphalt instead of cutting it out, so you either own and run that plant or you do not. Submission is on the Chest.
Fit: A patching contractor already running in-situ recycling or thermal repair kit, within reach of Wirral, for three years of call-off repairs. If you patch the conventional way — cut, plane, replace — this is not a scheme you can adapt to. It is a different process.
Scoring: Price 50, Quality 40, Social Value 10. That is an even split for a patching contract, which usually goes on price alone. It suggests the council wants evidence the method works, not just a rate.
Price: £875k over three years is just under £300k a year. The description reads like a product sheet — it sets out why the method is better and never says how many patches, on which roads, or to what specification. Until you see the volumes in the documents, you cannot know whether that is a full year's work for one crew or a few weeks.
Verdict: Bid if you already own and run in-situ recycling patching plant in the North West. If you patch conventionally, this is not your contract.

Northern Trains Limited

Heaton reception road enhancement

Value: £641,170 ex VAT (£769,404 inc)
Term: 7 months — 18 Dec 2026 to 30 Jul 2027
Region: Tyne and Wear — Heaton, Newcastle
Closes: 20 Nov 2026, 16:00 · enquiries also close 20 Nov, 16:00
Sector: Civils

No bid

Gate: Read the title carefully. Reception Roads 1 to 4 and Siding A are railway lines in a train depot, not roads — the notice is about the facilities for servicing trains. The work is outline and detailed design and then construction across civils, mechanical and electrical, planned to Network Rail technical approval standards, with you as principal contractor for the surveys. It is let under the utilities regime on Delta eSourcing.
Fit: A rail depot contractor with design capability, M&E in-house or tied in, and experience of working inside an operating depot while trains keep being serviced around it. A highways or general civils firm reading 'reception road' and thinking surfacing has misread the job.
Scoring: Price 55, Quality 45. Northern also reserves the right to award nothing, and the contract can be novated to another train operator or to DfT Operator Limited if the industry is restructured.
Price: £641k to design and build depot improvements across civils, mechanical and electrical in seven months, starting a week before Christmas. And the enquiry deadline is the same minute as the submission deadline — 20 November at 16:00 — so in practice there is no clarification window unless you ask early and they answer.
Verdict: No bid unless you already deliver rail depot works to Network Rail standards. The reception roads are railway sidings, and the notice leaves no time to ask questions.

Issue 4 · 20 October 2026

Data cabling and passive infrastructure services

South West Wales Regional Civil Engineering Contractors Framework 2027

Jesus Green riverside wall repairs

A8 in-situ recycling patching works

Heaton reception road enhancement

Get it before the deadline, not after