Official UK procurement notice
Interim Maintenance Contracts (IMC)
Authority: High Speed Two (HS2) Limited (Public body)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionHS2 is Britain’s new high-speed railway connecting London and Birmingham. Our British-built trains will create capacity, or space, on the congested network, providing faster, zero carbon journeys between our two largest cities. Services will continue to Manchester, the North West and Scotland using the conventional railway network, cutting journey times.
Due to the potential changes in HS2 Ltd.’s Delivery Strategy resulting from the HS2 Reset, HS2 Ltd has identified a need for capabilities to undertake routine repairs, maintenance and safeguarding of assets which it owns or for which it has responsibility.
To develop this capability, it is HS2 Ltd.’s current intention to procure Interim Maintenance Contracts (IMCs) to undertake Care & Custody and Infrastructure Safeguarding of assets that have been completed by the current Main Works Civils Contracts (MWCC) and prior to the High-Speed Rail Systems (HSRS) contractors mobilising.
The scope may also include optional non-core instructed elements of landscape design, planted plot creation works and localised civils construction works.
The core scope of services has been categorised as Asset Specific Care & Custody and Infrastructure Safeguarding. These include the following scope areas:
Asset Specific Care and Custody
•Land Management
•Environmental and Landscape Infrastructure Maintenance
•Temporary Facilities Maintenance and Management
•Civil Engineering Infrastructure Maintenance
Infrastructure Safeguarding
•Security Services
•Principal Contractor (PC) Duties
•Professional Services (Subject to additional instruction)
•Lead Contractor Duties (relates to the role defined in the HS2 Code of Construction Practice, required alongside the CDM PC responsibilities)
Optional Non-Core Services
•Landscape design and planted plot creation
•Civils construction
CPV: Agricultural, forestry, horticultural, aquacultural and apicultural services · Security services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How High Speed Two (HS2) Limited buys Security services (CPV 7971), and who usually turns up
High Speed Two (HS2) Limited’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: Security services (CPV 7971) →
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.
No winner locations published for this authority. Local means a registered address 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 64 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 bid0% / 16%
2–30% / 17%
4–680% / 21%
7+20% / 46%
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 estimate29%
Within ±2%48%
Above estimate23%
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 7971Published estimate£1.0bn
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 184 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid16%
2–317%
4–621%
7+46%
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
- Utilities
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 26 May 2026, 15:38 BST
- Last source update
- 1 Jun 2026, 16:04 BST
- Authority reference
Project_3066- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-051542- Latest notice
- Pipeline notice (UK1)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06a408Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
26 May 2026 → 15 Dec 2027 · 5 dates- Planning notice published152 days ago26 May 2026, 15:38 BST
- Latest notice published146 days ago1 Jun 2026, 16:04 BST
- Market engagement136 days ago10 Jun 2026, 23:59 BST
HS2 Ltd is conducting this preliminary market engagement exercise, in the form of a Market Sounding Briefing and Questionnaire, to better understand supplier interest, capacity and capabilities in relation to the following procurement: Interim Maintenance Contracts (IMC).
The objective of this preliminary market engagement is to understand market interest to deliver IMC to HS2 Ltd and help inform the tender specification. In particular:
- To raise awareness of HS2 Ltd.’s plans;
- To assess interest and seek views on the opportunity including potential (e.g. consortium) bid structures and the specialist capabilities being sought;
- To consult on preferred commercial and delivery structures;
- To explore risk appetite and related considerations; and
- To seek views on the proposed procurement timeline.
Organisations wishing to participate should note that engaging in this preliminary market engagement exercise, including completing and returning questionnaire response, is not a prerequisite to participating in any subsequent competitive process.
HS2 Ltd will review responses to this engagement process and may conduct further iterative engagement processes, as it may require.
In any subsequent procurement HS2 Ltd will make all relevant market engagement documents available to potential suppliers.
Participation in this market engagement exercise will be wholly at each responding organisation's own cost. No expenses or costs incurred by any organisation responding to this notice and/or participating in this engagement process will be reimbursed by the HS2 Ltd.
This market engagement exercise and any associated documents or communications should not be regarded as an investment recommendation or defined opportunity. No information contained in the documents or in any communication made between HS2 Ltd and any organisation in connection with any aspect of this market engagement exercise shall be relied upon as constituting a contract, agreement or representation that any contract shall be awarded. Whether or not HS2 Ltd subsequently commences a procurement and/or thereafter awards any contract related to this potential opportunity shall be solely at its discretion.
For your feedback to be considered please complete the Questionnaire via the following SmartSurvey link www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/HS2IMC1/ ↗ by no later than 5pm Wednesday 10 June 2026.
For any queries, please e-mail [email protected] with “IMC Procurement” in the subject header.
- Today25 Oct 2026
- Tender notice expectedin 20 days13 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Contract starts15 Dec 2027
Notice history
4 events · 4 releases on Find a Tender · since 26 May 2026- Pipeline notice published26 May 2026, 15:38 BSTUK1
- Pipeline notice published26 May 2026, 15:55 BSTUK1
- Preliminary market engagement notice published27 May 2026, 14:55 BSTUK2
- Pipeline notice published1 Jun 2026, 16:04 BSTUK1
Routine re-releases (4)
- 2026-05: 1 release · 26 May 2026
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 (4)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Pipeline notice Pipeline notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- Pipeline notice Pipeline notice on Find a Tender
- Pipeline notice Pipeline notice on Find a Tender