Find a TenderPlanned procurementPlanned procurement notice
Published 18 May 2026, 10:56 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Pierhead – Architect Led Design Team (RIBA 0–2)

Authority: Cardiff Council (Central government)

ServicesCompetitive flexible procedureAbove thresholdSME suitableVCSE suitable
Sectors: Architecture & Engineering (71) Delivery: UK
Planned pipeline value£500,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 6 Jul 2026from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 1 yrends 5 Sept 2027 · starts 5 Sept 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Cardiff Council seeks to appoint a suitably qualified and experienced multi disciplinary design team for its site on Pierhead Street, Butetown.

The Council intends to redevelop vacant brownfield land off Pierhead Street to deliver a residential led, mixed use development. The scheme presents an opportunity to co locate a proposed Metro station promoted by Transport for Wales (TfW).

The appointed design team will work collaboratively with the Council and key stakeholders to develop a vision and design proposals up to and including RIBA Stage 2. This will enable the Council to progress the scheme into later stages alongside a development partner.

The Pierhead Street site forms part of Cardiff Council’s ambitious housebuilding programme, which will deliver over 4,000 new homes across the city. This award winning programme represents one of the largest council housing build initiatives in Wales, supported by investment of approximately £850 million to deliver affordable homes at scale and pace.

Site constraints /opportunities

The site is located in a dynamic, waterfront district within Cardiff Bay, a vibrant and culturally rich area at the heart of the city’s historic docklands. The site is approx 0.88ha and is comprised of predominantly vacant land with a small, single storey building lies at the far northwest of the site.

The site has been identified by Transport for Wales (TfW) as a possible location for a new station as part of the Cardiff Crossrail Project which is an integral part of the South Wales Metro plans which would need to be incorporated into the development options for the site.

The site comprises of a relatively flat, derelict area of land. It is visually prominent, with wide views out to the north overlooking the Eastern Bay Link Road (A4232).

Key constraints include:

Buried dock wall

TFW proposed crossrail

High Voltage cables

Dock feeder culvert

Contamination and made ground

Access constraints

Key objectives:

Deliver a sustainable, inclusive mixed tenure neighbourhood that is welcoming to residents

Optimise site capacity to deliver 300–350 apartments, comprising:

Minimum 200 units for private rent and/or shared ownership in one high rise block (BSA Cat 1 HRB)

Approximately 150 units for social rent in a separate block (BSA Cat 1 HRB)

Both blocks should incorporate A1 and A3 uses at ground floor

All social rented units must meet WDQR space standards. Private rented units are not required to comply with WDQR.

Social rented flats must meet EPC A or WG approved alternatives (AECB / Passivhaus aligned). The Private rented /sale block should also ideally meet EPC A if possible.

No fossil fuels on any house type.

The design team are expected to provide options for the energy strategy for the blocks and provide options appraisal for different solutions, such as GSHP, ASHP and all electric system as well as options for uplifts to AECB or Passivhaus standards

Design teams are expected to consider innovative solutions to overheating risks in high rise buildings

Green infrastructure, placemaking principles and secure by design principles should be embedded into the scheme to ensure a desirable, sustainable, safe and attractive environment for residents and visitors

Scope of services:

We are looking to appoint an Architect lead multi-discipline design team with highrise building experience to produce a scheme up to and including RIBA stage 2.

This includes reviewing existing documents and designing a project to the RIBA stage 2 plan of works, to allow the Council to progress to a Pre Contract Service Agreement (PCSA) with a development partner, who will submit Planning and ultimately implement the scheme

The architect team would project manage the scheme and provide detailed programmes, risks and scheme updates to the client and manage the consultant team.

The design team should comprise the following consultants :

Architect – lead including Project manager, principal designer, urban design

Engineer – civils

Engineer – structural

MEP consultant

Transport planning

Planning consultant

Landscape architect

Fire consultant

Please note that this notice is for information purposes only.

Any future opportunity will be issued via the Proactis eSourcing Portal.

To access the Proactis Portal, please use the following link:

supplierlive.proactisp2p.com/Account/Login ↗

CPV: Architectural, construction, engineering and inspection services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1Planned 1 yrSMEVCSE
Contract period: 5 Sept 2026 – 5 Sept 2027 (1 yr)
Delivery: UKEligibility: SME eligibleVCSE eligible

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

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

How Cardiff Council buys Architectural, construction, engineering (CPV 71), and who usually turns up

Cardiff 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: Architectural, construction, engineering (CPV 71) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bid
This buyerCardiff 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: 12 of 25 known-size awards · market: division 71 · UK-wide, n=2,979
48%56%

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.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 27 of 43 known-location awards · market: division 71 · UK-wide, n=2,803
63%52%

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: 15 decided notices · market: division 71 · UK-wide, n=559
61 days46 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 61 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 17 of 36 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: division 71 · UK-wide, n=4,206
47%43%

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 buyer24 lots with bid counts · all categories
13% had one bid
The market1,116 lots with bid counts · division 71 · UK-wide
12% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid13% / 12%
Buyer: 3 of 24 lots with published bid counts. Market: 139 of 1,116 lots with published bid counts.
2–346% / 23%
Buyer: 11 of 24 lots with published bid counts. Market: 253 of 1,116 lots with published bid counts.
4–638% / 29%
Buyer: 9 of 24 lots with published bid counts. Market: 328 of 1,116 lots with published bid counts.
7+4% / 35%
Buyer: 1 of 24 lots with published bid counts. Market: 396 of 1,116 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 buyer21 lots with estimate and award · all categories
48% below estimate
The market738 lots with estimate and award · division 71 · UK-wide
49% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate48% / 49%
Buyer: 10 of 21 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 358 of 738 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%24% / 34%
Buyer: 5 of 21 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 254 of 738 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate29% / 17%
Buyer: 6 of 21 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 126 of 738 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 7112 monthsSME suitablePublished estimate£500k

This lot lists more than one class in CPV 71. 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 1,116 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet12% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 1,116 similar lots
1 bid12%
139 of 1,116 similar past lots received 1 bid (12%).
2–323%
253 of 1,116 similar past lots received 2–3 (23%).
4–629%
328 of 1,116 similar past lots received 4–6 (29%).
7+35%
396 of 1,116 similar past lots received 7+ (35%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 5 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 £500k, 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
Procedure method
Competitive flexible procedure
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
18 May 2026, 10:56 BST
Last source update
21 May 2026, 17:05 BST
Award evaluation window
Submission end – 4 Sept 2026
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-047393
Latest notice
Planned procurement notice (UK3)
Classification (CPV)
Architectural, construction, engineering and inspection services
Delivery area
UK
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-069ac4 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
5 Aug 2026, 12:00 BST
Accepted languages
en

Timeline

18 May 2026 → 5 Sept 2026 · 6 dates
  1. Planning notice published159 days ago
    18 May 2026, 10:56 BST
  2. Latest notice published156 days ago
    21 May 2026, 17:05 BST
  3. Tender notice expected110 days ago
    6 Jul 2026, 23:59 BST
  4. Submission deadline80 days ago
    5 Aug 2026, 12:00 BST
  5. Award decision expected by50 days ago
    4 Sept 2026, 23:59 BST
  6. Contract starts50 days ago
    5 Sept 2026, 00:00 BST

Notice history

2 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 18 May 2026
  1. Planned procurement notice published
    18 May 2026, 10:56 BST
    UK3
  2. Planned procurement notice published
    21 May 2026, 17:05 BST
    UK3
Published amendments (1)

Please note that this notice is for information purposes only. Any future opportunity will be issued via the Proactis eSourcing Portal. To access the Proactis Portal, please use the following link: https://supplierlive.proactisp2p.com/Account/Login

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

Cardiff Council

Contracting authorityPublic authority - central governmentWelsh devolved regulations apply GB-PPON: PVHP-5769-YHRQ County Hall, Cardiff, Wales, CF10 4UWContact email

Official documents & specifications (2)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure