Official UK procurement notice
HDC Leisure and Active Wellbeing Contract
Authority: Horsham District Council (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionFull details and documents: in-tendhost.co.uk/sesharedservices/asp… ↗
Horsham District Council intends to commence a formal procurement process for a new leisure operating contract and is undertaking a Preliminary Market Engagement exercise.
The current contract with Places Leisure is due to expire in November 2027 and includes the following facilities:
- Pavilions in the Park
- The Bridge Leisure Centre
- Billingshurst Leisure Centre
- Steyning Leisure Centre
In preparation for the procurement of a new contract, the Council adopted a new Active Wellbeing Strategy in March 2026. This new policy document sets out the Council's ambition to shift from a conventional leisure model, focused primarily on traditional facilities and activities, towards a broader Active Wellbeing service. One which continues to meet the needs of those already active and engaged but which also focuses on less active populations in support of wider health and social outcomes.
The procurement of a new leisure operating contract represents a key opportunity to align the role of the operator with the Council's strategic ambitions, ensuring that future service delivery actively contributes to more meaningful outcomes for residents.
The Sport, Leisure and Culture Consultancy (SLC) is supporting the Council with this market engagement exercise and throughout the subsequent procurement process.
The purpose of this exercise is to secure early engagement with the market and to test some of the Council's initial thinking on key elements of the new contract and procurement approach in order to inform the development of a clear Procurement Strategy.
The attached documents provide some high-level information on the facilities in scope; the potential development opportunities identified through the Active Wellbeing Investment Strategy and the proposed timescale for the procurement.
The Council are seeking confidential responses to a brief set of questions which explore potential partnership options. This will inform the Council's approach to the development of its Procurement Strategy and contract documents.
Please submit your responses to the questions within the separate submission document available on the In-Tend portal. Responses should be submitted to the Council, via the portal, by 5pm on Wednesday 8 July 2026.
The Council welcomes questions from organisations participating in this market engagement exercise and is willing to facilitate confidential discussions with interested parties.
Please submit any questions or requests for meetings via the In-Tend messaging system.
CPV: Recreational, cultural and sporting services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Horsham District Council buys Recreational, cultural and sporting (CPV 92), and who usually turns up
Horsham District Council’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Recreational, cultural and sporting (CPV 92) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
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.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.
i
How often local firms win similar work.
Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.
Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.
i
How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
Half of these awards have an award date within 35 days of the bid deadline.
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.
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.
1 bid13% / 14%
2–30% / 44%
4–638% / 31%
7+50% / 11%
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.
Below estimate39%
Within ±2%46%
Above estimate16%
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.
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 92Estimate not published
This lot lists more than one class in CPV 92. The comparison uses that group.
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 154 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid14%
2–344%
4–631%
7+11%
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.
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.
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.
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
- 17 Jun 2026, 14:18 BST
- Last source update
- 17 Jun 2026, 14:43 BST
- Authority reference
HMDC - 039099- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-057188- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06b717Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
17 Jun 2026 → 1 Dec 2027 · 4 dates- Planning notice published130 days ago17 Jun 2026, 14:18 BST
- Market engagement108 days ago8 Jul 2026, 23:59 BST
The Council are seeking confidential responses to a brief set of questions which explore potential partnership options. This will inform the Council's approach to the development of its Procurement Strategy and contract documents.
Please submit your responses to the questions within the separate submission document available on the In-Tend portal. Responses should be submitted to the Council, via the portal, by 5pm on Wednesday 8 July 2026.
The Council welcomes questions from organisations participating in this market engagement exercise and is willing to facilitate confidential discussions with interested parties.
Please submit any questions or requests for meetings via the In-Tend messaging system.
Full details and documents here: in-tendhost.co.uk/sesharedservices/asp… ↗
- Today25 Oct 2026
- Tender notice expectedin 13 days6 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Contract starts1 Dec 2027
Notice history
2 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 17 Jun 2026- Preliminary market engagement notice published17 Jun 2026, 14:18 BSTUK2
- Preliminary market engagement notice published17 Jun 2026, 14:43 BSTUK2
Published amendments (1)
Removal of wording that does not apply to this project.
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
Official documents & specifications (2)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender