Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 28 Aug 2026, 11:02 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Manchester City Council Housing Estates: Electric Vehicle Charge Points

Authority: Manchester City Council (Local council)

ServicesConcession
Concession value (operator's revenue)Value not publishedoperator revenue, not the authority's budget
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 10 yrsends 28 Feb 2037 · starts 1 Mar 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Manchester City Council is undertaking a Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) exercise to explore the market's capability to provide electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

The Council is seeking feedback from prospective providers to help inform the development of any future procurement and to gain a better understanding of available solutions, market capacity, and innovation in this area.

This PME exercise is for information-gathering purposes only and does not constitute a call for competition. Manchester City Council reserves the right not to proceed with any future procurement arising from this engagement.

CPV: Chargers · Electricity supply installations · Installation services of electrical equipment · Rechargers

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published

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

How Manchester City Council buys Ballasts for discharge lamps or tubes (CPV 3115), and who usually turns up

Manchester City 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: Ballasts for discharge lamps or tubes (CPV 3115) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bid
This buyerManchester City 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: 40 of 73 known-size awards · market: CPV 3115 · UK-wide, n=20
55%85%

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.

Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered. The market figure counts awards delivered in North West England.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 74 of 105 known-location awards · market: CPV 3115 · North West England, n=7
70%0%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.

How long to a decision?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 25 decided notices · market: CPV 3115 · UK-wide, n=11
83 days103 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 83 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 32 of 85 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 3115 · North West England, n=11
38%64%

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 buyer73 lots with bid counts · all categories
12% had one bid
The market15 lots with bid counts · CPV 3115 · UK-wide
13% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid12% / 13%
Buyer: 9 of 73 lots with published bid counts. Market: 2 of 15 lots with published bid counts.
2–338% / 40%
Buyer: 28 of 73 lots with published bid counts. Market: 6 of 15 lots with published bid counts.
4–626% / 20%
Buyer: 19 of 73 lots with published bid counts. Market: 3 of 15 lots with published bid counts.
7+23% / 27%
Buyer: 17 of 73 lots with published bid counts. Market: 4 of 15 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 buyer56 lots with estimate and award · all categories
25% below estimate
The market8 lots with estimate and award · CPV 3115 · UK-wide
25% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate25% / 25%
Buyer: 14 of 56 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 2 of 8 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%63% / 63%
Buyer: 35 of 56 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 5 of 8 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate13% / 13%
Buyer: 7 of 56 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 1 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 3168120 monthsEstimate not published

This lot is listed as CPV 3168. The table above uses the notice category.

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 31 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet10% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 31 similar lots
1 bid10%
3 of 31 similar past lots received 1 bid (10%).
2–348%
15 of 31 similar past lots received 2–3 (48%).
4–626%
8 of 31 similar past lots received 4–6 (26%).
7+16%
5 of 31 similar past lots received 7+ (16%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 3 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.

—Estimate not published
The buyer published no estimate for this lot, so there is nothing to forecast against. A price prediction here would be a number about a number we do not have.

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
Unspecified in notice
Regulatory regime
Concession
Commercial structure
Stand-alone contract (no framework)
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
28 Aug 2026, 11:02 BST
Last source update
28 Aug 2026, 11:02 BST
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-082092
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
ChargersElectricity supply installationsInstallation services of electrical equipmentRechargers
Delivery area
North West (UKD33)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06ee5e Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

28 Aug 2026 → 1 Mar 2027 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published58 days ago
    28 Aug 2026, 11:02 BST
  2. Market engagement50 days ago
    4 Sept 2026, 23:59 BST

    The Council is using the e-procurement portal known as the Chest. Applicants will need to register their details at the following link www.the-chest.org.uk ↗.

    Once registered, applicants will be emailed a log-in and password which will allow them to gain access to the documentation relating to this Preliminary Market Engagement.

    Interested parties wishing to participate must complete the PME Questionnaire via The Chest e-tendering portal by 5pm, 04 September 2026.

    See link below for access to the PME questionnaire:

    procontract.due-north.com/Procurer/Advert/View ↗

    Please note late submissions may not be considered.

  3. Today
    25 Oct 2026
  4. Contract startsin 127 days
    1 Mar 2027

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    28 Aug 2026, 11:02 BST
    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

Manchester City Council

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PLNV-8798-LDMP Town Hall Extension, Manchester, North West, M60 2LAContact email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure