Find a TenderOpen for tender Tender notice
Published 8 Oct 2026, 13:39 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Fire Safety Systems - Service & Maintenance

Authority: Ipswich Borough Council (Local council)

ServicesOpen procedureAbove threshold
Published estimate£180,000≈ £90k / year · £216,000 inc. VAT
Submission deadline 5 Nov 202611:00 GMT · 27d 11h left
Clarification cut-off 22 Oct 202614:00 BST · questions to the authority
Contract term 2 yrsends 30 Nov 2028 · up to 30 Nov 2030 with extensions · starts 1 Dec 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Servicing and maintenance of Fire Safety Equipment for Ipswich Borough Council housing stock.

CPV: Fire-prevention installation works · Installation services of fire protection equipment · Repair and maintenance services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · value published
Lot #1Renewal 2 yrsPublished valueAED 180,000
Contract period: 1 Dec 2026 — 30 Nov 2028 (up to 30 Nov 2030 with extensions) · up to 4 yrs with extensionsDelivery: East of EnglandTurnover guideline: ~AED 179,754/yr≈ 2× annual value
Value
AED 180,000 exc. VAT · AED 216,000 inc. VAT
Extensions
2 X 12 Month
45343000 Fire-prevention installation works50000000 Repair and maintenance services51700000 Installation services of fire protection equipment

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

What it takes to win
i

How this buyer will score bids.

The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).

Evaluation split and conditions of participation as published — the tender pack may add more
How bids are scored
Quality: 40%Price: 60%
Published sub-criteria (2)
  • Fire Safety Service & Maintenance — 40%
  • Fire Safety Service & Maintenance — 60%
Published award criteria (2)
  • Fire Safety Service & Maintenance
  • Fire Safety Service & Maintenance

No conditions of participation were published on the notice; check the tender documents.

What this means for your bid
  • Price carries 60 of 100 points — a 10% discount moves about 6 points. This one is won on the number — sharpen the price before polishing the prose.
  • Turnover usually expected at this size: about AED 179,754 (twice the annual value).

Price arithmetic assumes straight proportional scoring — the tender pack may use another formula. Turnover is an indicative market norm (≈2× annual value), not a published condition.

Competition analysis · published record, not a forecast of who will bid

How Ipswich Borough Council buys Fencing, railing and safety equipment installation work (CPV 4534) — and who usually turns up

Ipswich Borough Council’s own published record, next to the East of England market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Fencing, railing and safety equipment installation work (CPV 4534) →

1

How the contest usually goes

This buyer’s published record next to the market where the work is delivered — contested contracts only, counted per lot

Question for the bid
This buyerIpswich Borough Council · all categories
What to do with it
How often do SMEs win?
i

How often small and medium firms win.

Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.

The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 23 of 36 known-size awards · market: CPV 4534, n=48
64%77%

Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.

How often do local suppliers win?
i

How often local firms win similar work.

Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.

Here, local means registered in East of England.

A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 24 of 53 known-location awards · market: CPV 4534, n=58
45%36%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered outside East of England.

How long to a decision?
i

How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.

Middle value in days from the deadline to the first award notice, on competitions that published both dates.

Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 10 decided notices · market: n=8
34 days127 days

Half of these awards were announced within 34 days of the bid deadline.

How often single-bid or direct?
i

How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.

Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.

Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.

Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: at least 1 of 51 awarded contracts without a rival · market: n=22
2%5%

Missing bid counts may hide more single-bid awards. This share is a minimum.

How many bids did past lots attract?

i

How many bids past lots received.

Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.

Past bids do not predict this tender.

Last 36 months.

This buyer16 lots with bid counts · all categories
6% had one bid
The market22 lots with bid counts · CPV 4534
0% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid6% / 0%
Buyer: 1 of 16 lots with published bid counts. Market: 0 of 22 lots with published bid counts.
2–319% / 18%
Buyer: 3 of 16 lots with published bid counts. Market: 4 of 22 lots with published bid counts.
4–631% / 27%
Buyer: 5 of 16 lots with published bid counts. Market: 6 of 22 lots with published bid counts.
7+44% / 55%
Buyer: 7 of 16 lots with published bid counts. Market: 12 of 22 lots with published bid counts.

How did awards compare with estimates?

i

Where winning prices landed against estimates.

Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.

Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.

Last 36 months.

This buyer34 lots with estimate and award · all categories
59% below estimate
The market8 lots with estimate and award · CPV 4534
25% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate59% / 25%
Buyer: 20 of 34 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 2 of 8 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%32% / 50%
Buyer: 11 of 34 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 4 of 8 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate9% / 25%
Buyer: 3 of 34 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 2 of 8 lots with an estimate and award.
2

Assess each lot
i

What past awards tell you about each lot.

See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.

No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.

Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors — from published award history, not a bid list

Lot #1CPV 45340% single-bidPublished estimate£180,000
Expected competition
i

How many bids this lot may attract.

The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.

The published estimate is in AED, so this lot carries no forecast — the model is trained on sterling estimates.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—0% single-bid risk
Past bids on 22 similar lots
1 bid0%
0 of 22 similar past lots received 1 bid (0%).
2–318%
4 of 22 similar past lots received 2–3 (18%).
4–627%
6 of 22 similar past lots received 4–6 (27%).
7+55%
12 of 22 similar past lots received 7+ (55%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 7.5 bids.
Commercial price forecast
i

Where the winning price may land.

The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.

No comparable awards for this lot yet.

A guide, not a price to bid.

—Estimate in AED
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet — the published estimate is £180k, and the forecast stays empty until the market has a record to read.

Who has supplied this buyer on similar work?
i

Who has done similar work for this buyer.

Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.

A past supplier may not bid again.

SupplierThis buyer’s earlier contractLotAward valueMatch
—

Who could compete for this lot?
i

Who could compete for this lot?

Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.

None is confirmed as a bidder.

SupplierWon in this categoryLive contractsAward vs estimate
—
Coverage and what to read with care
  • Each figure explains itself. The on a figure says what it is, how it is counted and which scope this notice’s own record came from (class, division, all categories, or the authority’s 24-month row). The two sides are never blended. A lot’s own market is read at its delivery region where the lot names one; where it names several, or none that can be resolved, the chart falls back to the UK-wide record for the same category and says so under the bar. An empty cell means the source published nothing usable. Long form: Methodology.
  • When we call out a difference. A buyer figure is only flagged against the market when the sample is large enough that the gap is unlikely to be chance; at most two callouts appear, always phrased as a comparison with both numbers and the sample size.
  • Coverage (re-measured 5 Oct on the live record, 94,497 awarded procedures of the last three years). 51 % publish a bid count and 72 % a delivery region, so the market column reads the authority’s registered region when the notice names none, labelled. Of the 17,687 award-vs-estimate pairs, 34 % sit exactly on the estimate — the buyer published the award at the figure it advertised. n is on every figure; a thin sample is muted, never hidden, and a distribution is not drawn as percentages below ten observations.
  • “Match”, text similarity, the expected-bid figure and the distribution drawn beneath it are model outputs, not published facts or win probabilities. Find a Tender does not publish who is bidding. Never shown: contact details, payment behaviour, or a recommended price.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record
Procedure method
Open procedure
Legal basis
UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
Procurement category
Services
Notice status
Open for tender
Procurement threshold
Above threshold (FTS publication)
Regulatory regime
Standard
Commercial structure
Stand-alone contract (no framework)
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
8 Oct 2026, 13:39 BST
Last source update
8 Oct 2026, 13:39 BST
Award evaluation window
Submission end — 1 Dec 2026
Authority reference
IBC/21218
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-095204
Latest notice
Tender notice (UK4)
Classification (CPV)
Fire-prevention installation worksInstallation services of fire protection equipmentRepair and maintenance services
Delivery area
East of England (UKH14)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-0783c1 Find a Tender

How to participate & submission route

Official notice
Requests to participate (first stage)
—
Tender submission deadline
5 Nov 2026, 11:00 GMT
Clarification deadline
22 Oct 2026, 14:00 BST
Electronic submission
Allowed
Accepted languages
en
Detailed submission instructions & authority contactsFrom official release
Published estimate £180,000 excludes VAT (£216,000 including VAT).

Timeline

5 published dates · Europe/London
  1. Tender notice publishedearlier today
    8 Oct 2026, 13:39 BST
  2. Clarification questions byin 14 days
    22 Oct 2026, 14:00 BST
  3. Submission deadlinein 27 days
    5 Nov 2026, 11:00 GMT
  4. Contract startsin 53 days
    1 Dec 2026
  5. Award decision expected byin 54 days
    1 Dec 2026, 23:59 GMT

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Nothing awarded yet
Awards (0)
No award published
Contracts (0)
No contract published
Bid statistics
No aggregate bid statistics published

Notice history

2 events · 1 release on Find a Tender · since 8 Oct 2026
  1. Tender notice published
    8 Oct 2026, 13:39 BSTUK4
  2. First tender notice published
    8 Oct 2026, 13:39 BST

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

Ipswich Borough Council

Contracting authorityPublic undertaking GB-PPON: PPLT-7247-DMBJ Grafton House, 15-17 Russell Road, Ipswich, East of England, IP1 2DE [email protected]

Official documents & specifications (2)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Tender pack and attachments

  • Bidding documents and specificationstenderBidding documents and specifications

Notices published for this procedure

  • Tender notice tenderTender noticeUK4Tender notice on Find a Tender