Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 13 Feb 2026, 15:21 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

Grounds Maintenance and Communal Cleaning

Authority: CORNERSTONE HOUSING LIMITED (Public body)

ServicesAbove thresholdSME suitableVCSE suitable
Planned pipeline value£497,920pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 1 Apr 2026from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 3 yrsends 31 Oct 2029 · up to 31 Oct 2031 with extensions · starts 1 Nov 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

This procurement is being undertaken on behalf of Cornerstone Housing by GBS Procure Limited. The Pre market Engagement document can be found on their website (www.gbsprocure.com ↗)

The Contract will cover the delivery of grounds maintenance and communal cleaning services in Exeter. The contract may be split into three lots as follows:

  1. Lot 1 - Grounds Maintenance services
  2. Lot 2 - Communal Cleaning Services
  3. Lot 3 – Grounds Maintenance and Communal Cleaning

Cornerstone Housing is looking to establish a 3-year contract with the option to extend for a further 2 years subject to service delivery being achieved. We are particularly interested in hearing from SME’s who deliver these services within the Exeter area.

Indicatively, the Grounds Maintenance has an annual value of £96k per annum, including VAT over the next 3 years and the Communal Cleaning is valued at £23,500 per annum including VAT over the next three years.

The objective of Lot 3, would be to appoint a contractor who can deliver all services effectively, offering value for money through reduced overheads of having the whole contract.

The services will be delivered through well-coordinated planning, quality assurance, and effective contractor management to achieve value for money and sustainable outcomes.

Some of the specific questions we have include:

  1. Can you provide all of the services, including grounds maintenance and communal cleaning in the Exeter area?
  2. Do you already operate locally?
  3. What added value can you bring to this contract?

CPV: Cleaning services · Grounds maintenance services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 3 yrsSMEVCSE
Contract period: 1 Nov 2026 – 31 Oct 2029 (3 yrs) · up to 31 Oct 2031 with extensions
Delivery: South WestEligibility: SME eligibleVCSE eligible
Extensions: Extension options published

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

Planting and maintenance services of green areas (CPV 7731) in South West England, and who usually turns up

CORNERSTONE HOUSING LIMITED has too little published record in this market to describe on its own. Published market evidence for the same work stands beside whatever it has. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Planting and maintenance services of green areas (CPV 7731) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bid
This buyerCORNERSTONE HOUSING LIMITED · 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: 1 of 1 known-size awards · market: CPV 7731 · South West England, n=41
1 of 180%

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 South West England.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 1 of 1 known-location awards · market: CPV 7731 · South West England, n=57
1 of 154%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in South West 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: no decision dates published · market: CPV 7731 · South West England, n=16
—26 days

Half of these awards were announced within 26 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.

The market share is a minimum: some awards have no bid count.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: exactly 1 of 1 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 7731 · South West England, n=47
1 of 121%

Direct awards or one recorded bid are common here. Check the route before spending time on a bid.

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 buyerNo bid counts published
The market44 lots with bid counts · CPV 7731 · South West England
5% had one bid
Market · select a colour for counts
1 bid5%
Market: 2 of 44 lots with published bid counts.
2–314%
Market: 6 of 44 lots with published bid counts.
4–630%
Market: 13 of 44 lots with published bid counts.
7+52%
Market: 23 of 44 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 buyerNo estimate-and-award pairs published
The market28 lots with estimate and award · CPV 7731 · South West England
68% below estimate
Market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate68%
Market: 19 of 28 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%11%
Market: 3 of 28 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate21%
Market: 6 of 28 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 773136 monthsSME suitablePublished estimate£498k
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.

Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 44 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet5% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 44 similar lots
1 bid5%
2 of 44 similar past lots received 1 bid (5%).
2–314%
6 of 44 similar past lots received 2–3 (14%).
4–630%
13 of 44 similar past lots received 4–6 (30%).
7+52%
23 of 44 similar past lots received 7+ (52%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 7 bids.
Commercial price forecast
i

Where the award 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 statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.

—No model forecast yet
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet. The published estimate is £498k, 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.

No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.

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.

Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.

About this data
  • Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
  • Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
  • Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
  • Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record
Legal basis
UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
Procurement category
Services
Notice status
Planned procurement
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
13 Feb 2026, 15:21 GMT
Last source update
13 Feb 2026, 15:21 GMT
Authority reference
ID656
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-013531
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Cleaning servicesGrounds maintenance services
Delivery area
South West (UKK43)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06542d Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

13 Feb 2026 → 1 Nov 2026 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published251 days ago
    13 Feb 2026, 15:21 GMT
  2. Market engagement229 days ago
    6 Mar 2026, 23:59 GMT

    The Pre Market Engagement document can be found on the GBS Procure website. The link is: www.gbsprocure.com/cornerstone-housing-… ↗

  3. Tender notice expected204 days ago
    1 Apr 2026, 23:59 BST
  4. Today
    22 Oct 2026
  5. Contract startsin 10 days
    1 Nov 2026

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    13 Feb 2026, 15:21 GMT
    UK2

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Pipeline notice
Awards (0)
No award published
Contracts (0)
No contract published
Bid statistics
No aggregate bid statistics published

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

Cornerstone Housing Limited

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PVJX-9735-HXLV Cornerstone House, Western Way, Exeter, South West, EX1 1ALContact name, email, phone

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure