Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 21 May 2026, 14:44 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Oswestry Innovation Park - Multi Utility Infrastructure

Authority: Shropshire Council (Local council)

WorksUtilitiesSME suitable
Planned pipeline value£4,000,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 1 yr 8 moends 30 Jun 2028 · up to 30 Jun 2029 with extensions · starts 1 Nov 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Shropshire Council (the Authority) is seeking expressions of interest and market intelligence from suitably experienced and accredited organisations in connection with the procurement of utility infrastructure for Oswestry Innovation Park, an 18-hectare strategic employment site at Mile End, Oswestry, Shropshire.

The Authority, supported by its technical advisors UCML, intends to appoint an Independent Connection Provider (ICP) or consortium to deliver on-site utility infrastructure comprising electricity, clean water and civil works. Telecommunications infrastructure will be procured separately to preserve open-market access for future occupiers.

This notice is issued pursuant to Section 16 of the Procurement Act 2023 to invite the market to participate in a structured pre-market engagement process ahead of a formal competitive procurement.

CPV: Construction work for telephone lines · Electrical installation work · Electricity · Electricity distribution and control apparatus · Electricity distribution and related services · Electricity supplies · Mains connections · Substation construction work · Telecommunications network · Transformer substation · Transformers · Water distribution and related services · +1 more

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published

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

How Shropshire Council buys Construction work for pipelines, communication and power lines, for highways, roads, airfields and railways; flatwork (CPV 4523), and who usually turns up

Shropshire Council’s own published record, next to the published market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Construction work for pipelines, communication and power lines, for highways, roads, airfields and railways; flatwork (CPV 4523) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

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: 4 of 5 known-size awards · market: no supplier sizes published
80%—

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.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 4 of 6 known-location awards · market: no winner locations published
67%—

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in the delivery region.

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: 26 decided notices · market: no decision dates published
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.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 6 procurements with awards; rival share unknown · market: no bid counts or routes published
——

Awards are recorded, but published direct routes and bid counts do not establish this buyer’s share.

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 buyer50 lots with bid counts · all categories
18% had one bid
The marketNo bid counts published
Buyer · select a colour for counts
1 bid18%
Buyer: 9 of 50 lots with published bid counts.
2–334%
Buyer: 17 of 50 lots with published bid counts.
4–632%
Buyer: 16 of 50 lots with published bid counts.
7+16%
Buyer: 8 of 50 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 buyer45 lots with estimate and award · all categories
20% below estimate
The marketNo estimate-and-award pairs published
Buyer · select a colour for counts
Below estimate20%
Buyer: 9 of 45 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%71%
Buyer: 32 of 45 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate9%
Buyer: 4 of 45 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 452320 monthsSME suitablePublished estimate£4.0m
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 184 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet11% single-bid risk
Past bids on 184 similar lots
1 bid11%
21 of 184 similar past lots received 1 bid (11%).
2–336%
67 of 184 similar past lots received 2–3 (36%).
4–630%
55 of 184 similar past lots received 4–6 (30%).
7+22%
41 of 184 similar past lots received 7+ (22%).
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.

—No model forecast yet
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet. The published estimate is £4.0m, 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
Works
Notice status
Planned procurement
Procurement threshold
Unspecified in notice
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
21 May 2026, 14:44 BST
Last source update
21 May 2026, 14:44 BST
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-047180
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Construction work for telephone linesElectrical installation workElectricityElectricity distribution and control apparatusElectricity distribution and related servicesElectricity suppliesMains connectionsSubstation construction workTelecommunications networkTransformer substation
+3 moreTransformersWater distribution and related services
Delivery area
North East (UKC)North West (UKD)Yorkshire & Humber (UKE)East Midlands (UKF)West Midlands (UKG)East of England (UKH)London (UKI)South East (UKJ)
+1 moreSouth West (UKK)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-069f68 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

21 May 2026 → 1 Nov 2026 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published152 days ago
    21 May 2026, 14:44 BST
  2. Market engagement124 days ago
    18 Jun 2026, 23:59 BST

    The Authority will hold a live market engagement presentation event on Thursday 4th June 2026. Organisations wishing to participate should register using the link below:

    events.teams.microsoft.com/event/67b77329-7758-… ↗

    Following the presentation, market engagement questions will be issued to all registered participants via Microsoft Forms. The deadline for responses is Thursday 18th June 2026. Responses will be used solely to inform the Authority's procurement strategy and Scope of Works. All responses will be treated in confidence and anonymised in any published summary.

  3. Today
    20 Oct 2026
  4. Contract startsin 11 days
    1 Nov 2026

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    21 May 2026, 14:44 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

Shropshire Council

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PCLL-9577-QDZW Guildhall, Frankwell Quay, Shrewsbury, West Midlands, SY3 8HQContact email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure