Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 6 Mar 2026, 13:06 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

Micromobility Services Concession Contract - Market Engagement

Authority: Milton Keynes Council (Local council)

ServicesConcessionSME suitable
Concession value (operator's revenue)Value not publishedoperator revenue, not the authority's budget
Tender notice expected 1 Aug 2026from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 5 yrsends 31 Oct 2031 · up to 31 Oct 2036 with extensions · starts 1 Nov 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Milton Keynes City Council (MKCC) is conducting market engagement for Micromobility Services. Milton Keynes operates an active, regulated micromobility scheme featuring e-scooter and e-bikes, with a recent shift towards mandatory parking to improve safety and reduce pavement clutter. The City is a testbed for these technologies. Following the Department for Transport (DfT) trial, Milton Keynes is working to formalise the e-scooter scheme through a tendered concession contract to ensure long term regulated provision. An E-scooter Vehicle Special Order (VSO) covering the Milton Keynes City Council Unitary Authority boundary allows for the provision of e-scooters and will be maintained and updated as required by Milton Keynes City Council

This market engagement will look to establish the market appetite for delivering our micromobility services under a concession arrangement. MKCC welcomes your opinions on what works best for the market. Kindly complete and return the Market Engagement questionnaire available on in-tendhost.co.uk/milton-keynes/aspx/Home ↗.

Deadline for submissions of your response to market engagement question will be 12 noon; 06 May 2026.

CPV: Public road transport services · Road transport services · Special-purpose road passenger-transport services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 5 yrsSME
Contract period: 1 Nov 2026 – 31 Oct 2031 (5 yrs) · up to 31 Oct 2036 with extensions
Delivery: South EastEligibility: SME 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

How Milton Keynes Council buys Public road transport services (CPV 6011), and who usually turns up

Milton Keynes 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: Public road transport services (CPV 6011) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bid
This buyerMilton Keynes 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: 849 of 912 known-size awards · market: CPV 6011 · South East England, n=8
93%13%

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 South East England.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 884 of 929 known-location awards · market: CPV 6011 · South East England, n=11
95%64%

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: 16 decided notices · market: CPV 6011 · South East England, n=5
80 days25 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 80 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 buyer’s 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: at least 72 of 933 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 6011 · South East England, n=8
8%38%

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 buyer921 lots with bid counts · all categories
8% had one bid
The market13 lots with bid counts · CPV 6011 · South East England
8% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid8% / 8%
Buyer: 70 of 921 lots with published bid counts. Market: 1 of 13 lots with published bid counts.
2–39% / 15%
Buyer: 86 of 921 lots with published bid counts. Market: 2 of 13 lots with published bid counts.
4–69% / 77%
Buyer: 85 of 921 lots with published bid counts. Market: 10 of 13 lots with published bid counts.
7+74% / 0%
Buyer: 680 of 921 lots with published bid counts. Market: 0 of 13 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 buyer46 lots with estimate and award · all categories
43% below estimate
The market58 lots with estimate and award · CPV 6011 · UK-wide
36% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate43% / 36%
Buyer: 20 of 46 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 21 of 58 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%33% / 34%
Buyer: 15 of 46 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 20 of 58 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate24% / 29%
Buyer: 11 of 46 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 17 of 58 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 6060 monthsSME suitableEstimate not published

This lot lists more than one class in CPV 60. The comparison uses that group.

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 60 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet20% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 60 similar lots
1 bid20%
12 of 60 similar past lots received 1 bid (20%).
2–328%
17 of 60 similar past lots received 2–3 (28%).
4–622%
13 of 60 similar past lots received 4–6 (22%).
7+30%
18 of 60 similar past lots received 7+ (30%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 4 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
6 Mar 2026, 13:06 GMT
Last source update
6 Mar 2026, 13:06 GMT
Authority reference
2026-054
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-020383
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Public road transport servicesRoad transport servicesSpecial-purpose road passenger-transport services
Delivery area
South East (UKJ12)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-066427 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

6 Mar 2026 → 1 Nov 2026 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published232 days ago
    6 Mar 2026, 13:06 GMT
  2. Market engagement171 days ago
    6 May 2026, 23:59 BST

    Please return the completed market engagement questionnaire latest by 12 noon; 06 May 2026. The questionnaire is available on in-tendhost.co.uk/milton-keynes/aspx/Home ↗

  3. Tender notice expected84 days ago
    1 Aug 2026, 23:59 BST
  4. Today
    24 Oct 2026
  5. Contract startsin 7 days
    1 Nov 2026

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    6 Mar 2026, 13:06 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

Milton Keynes City Council

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PLDZ-6131-PWZH Civic Offices, 1 Saxon Gate East, Milton Keynes, South East, MK9 3EJContact name, email, phone

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure