Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 15 Jul 2026, 19:18 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Pre-Market Engagement Exercise for Complementary Highways Framework Contracts

Authority: Buckinghamshire Council (Local council)

Dynamic marketWorksSME suitable
Planned pipeline valueValue not publishedpipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Market period 3 yrsends 17 Jan 2030 · starts 18 Jan 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Buckinghamshire Council is undertaking a Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) exercise to inform the procurement of two complementary Highways Framework Contracts that will support the delivery of the Council's highways, transport, drainage, structures, and environmental improvement programmes.

The purpose of the PME is to engage with the market and gather feedback from suitably experienced suppliers to help shape the future procurement strategy, framework structure, lotting arrangements, and contract requirements. The Council is seeking insight from organisations capable of delivering high-quality, safe, efficient, and cost-effective services across a broad range of highway infrastructure works and professional consultancy services.

The proposed procurement will establish:

Framework 1 – Highways Works, covering a range of specialist and general highway construction and maintenance activities, including:

Surveys, investigations and testing services.

Minor highways and civil engineering works.

Traffic signs, road markings and road studs.

Drainage installation and improvement schemes, including SuDS.

Bridges and structural maintenance works.

Conventional road surfacing and reconstruction works.

Specialist surfacing treatments.

Pavement rehabilitation, recycling and stabilisation works.

Framework 2 – Professional Services, covering technical, commercial and environmental support services, including:

Commercial, project management and procurement support.

Scheme design and technical advisory services.

Environmental and arboricultural services.

Flood risk, drainage and water management consultancy.

Climate change, decarbonisation and sustainability services.

Through this PME, Buckinghamshire Council aims to understand supplier capability, market capacity, innovation opportunities, delivery models and potential risks associated with the proposed frameworks. The feedback received will be used to refine the procurement approach and ensure the resulting frameworks provide a flexible and effective route for delivering the Council's future highways and infrastructure programmes.

CPV: Construction project management services · Construction work for elevated highways · Construction work for highways · Construction work for highways, roads · Drainage works · Foundation work for highways, roads, streets and footpaths · Ground-drainage work · Road markings · Road-maintenance works · Surface work for highways · Surface work for roads

How this dynamic market works

From the published notice
Type
Dynamic market
Market period
3 yrs from 18 Jan 2027

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published

What it takes to win
i

How this buyer will score bids.

The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).

Evaluation split and conditions of participation as published; the tender pack may add more
What this means for your bid
  • “Pre-Market Engagement Exercise for Complementary Highways Framework…” is a dynamic market: the contest is a place on its panel, not a single contract.

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

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

Buckinghamshire Council’s own published record, next to the published market for the same work. This notice is a framework or DPS, so only frameworks and DPS are compared. 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: 8 of 11 known-size awards · market: CPV 4523 · UK-wide, n=144
73%55%

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.

Here, local means the winner is registered in the region where that contract was delivered.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 3 of 12 known-location awards · market: CPV 4523 · UK-wide, n=158
25%56%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered outside South East England.

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: 12 decided notices · market: CPV 4523 · UK-wide, n=38
49 days74 days

Half of these awards were announced within 49 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 market 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: exactly 1 of 2 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 4523 · UK-wide, n=50
1 of 212%

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 buyer4 lots with bid counts · all categories · too few to chart
The market6 lots with bid counts · CPV 4523 · South East England (authority’s region)
0% had one bid
Market · select a colour for counts
1 bid0%
Market: 0 of 6 lots with published bid counts.
2–30%
Market: 0 of 6 lots with published bid counts.
4–60%
Market: 0 of 6 lots with published bid counts.
7+100%
Market: 6 of 6 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.

On a framework or DPS, prices are agreed when work is called off.

Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.

Last 36 months.

Not comparable on a framework or DPS. The notice sets up a supplier panel and a ceiling value; what the work actually costs is agreed later, on each call-off or mini-competition, and those publish as contract notices of their own. The award-vs-estimate record of this market therefore sits on the call-offs; this page shows it on the contracts, not on the panel that frames them.

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 452336 monthsSME suitableEstimate not published
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 50 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet2% single-bid risk
Past bids on 50 similar lots
1 bid2%
1 of 50 similar past lots received 1 bid (2%).
2–318%
9 of 50 similar past lots received 2–3 (18%).
4–624%
12 of 50 similar past lots received 4–6 (24%).
7+56%
28 of 50 similar past lots received 7+ (56%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 7 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.

—Priced at call-off
On a framework or DPS the price is agreed on each call-off, so there is no award price to forecast here: the published figure is a ceiling.

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
Standard
Commercial structure
Dynamic market
Who may use this agreement
Any qualifying supplier may apply while the market is open
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
15 Jul 2026, 19:18 BST
Last source update
15 Jul 2026, 19:22 BST
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-066993
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Construction project management servicesConstruction work for elevated highwaysConstruction work for highwaysConstruction work for highways, roadsDrainage worksFoundation work for highways, roads, streets and footpathsGround-drainage workRoad markingsRoad-maintenance worksSurface work for highways
+1 moreSurface work for roads
Delivery area
Not published
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06cc4e Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Admission period ends
—

Timeline

15 Jul 2026 → 18 Jan 2027 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published97 days ago
    15 Jul 2026, 19:18 BST
  2. Market engagement77 days ago
    4 Aug 2026, 23:59 BST

    Buckinghamshire Council is undertaking a Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) exercise to inform the procurement of two complementary Highways Framework Contracts that will support the delivery of the Council's highways, transport, drainage, structures, and environmental improvement programmes.

    The purpose of the PME is to engage with the market and gather feedback from suitably experienced suppliers to help shape the future procurement strategy, framework structure, lotting arrangements, and contract requirements. The Council is seeking insight from organisations capable of delivering high-quality, safe, efficient, and cost-effective services across a broad range of highway infrastructure works and professional consultancy services.

    Documents can be found at in-tendhost.co.uk/buckinghamshire-coun… ↗

    Please register to retrieve and submit through the same portal

  3. Today
    21 Oct 2026
  4. Contract startsin 89 days
    18 Jan 2027

Notice history

2 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 15 Jul 2026
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    15 Jul 2026, 19:18 BST
    UK2
  2. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    15 Jul 2026, 19:22 BST
    UK2
Published amendments (1)

Updated portal address and submission instructions

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

Buckinghamshire Council

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PCLJ-2677-YQXD The Gateway, Gatehouse Road, Aylesbury, South East, HP198FFContact email

Official documents & specifications (2)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure