Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 2 Feb 2026, 12:31 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

Provision of Bill Validation and Energy Auditing Services

Authority: London Fire Commissioner (Public body)

ServicesSME suitable
Sectors: Public utilities (65) Delivery: Delivery location not published
Planned pipeline value£15,380pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 1 Apr 2026from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 2 yrs 1 moends 30 Dec 2028 · up to 30 Dec 2029 with extensions · starts 1 Dec 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

The London Fire Brigade (LFB) requires a new contract for the provision of Bill Validation and Energy Services, including the auditing and certification of energy usage across the London Fire Commissioner’s (LFC) estate. These services are critical to ensure the accuracy of utility billing, identify and recover overpayments, support carbon reporting, and contribute to broader energy management and efficiency objectives.

The overall objective of the LFC is to contract with a Supplier who shall manage and deliver the following services : -

  • Core Energy Bureau Services - in particular:
  • Database management - Maintain a computer database with site, account and consumption information supplied by the LFC.
  • Invoice checking, validation and cost recovery
  • Utility invoice reporting.
  • Contract Management
  • Ensure delivery of a quality service to meet the performance requirements of the contract;
  • Provide the services to the LFC’s estate to support operational functionality; and
  • Minimise disruption, inconvenience, and/or any business risk to the normal activities of the LFC.
  • Receive and process half hourly/AMR fiscal data from the Data Collectors on a daily basis.
  • Receive electricity, gas, and water bills for each account on an ongoing basis direct from the Suppliers.
  • Load full details from the bills into Supplier systems.
  • Validate the bills.
  • Where bill queries are found, challenge Suppliers and negotiate a settlement on your behalf.
  • Deliver a regular Accounts Payable report to your Finance department of which bills have been processed as a record of bills to pay.
  • Record a list of open queries along with potential cost recoveries.
  • Record a list of closed queries and recovered costs.
  • Identify and request any missing bills from the utility Suppliers.
  • Provide agreed management reports at pre-determined intervals. e.g., year on year cost/consumption reports, league tables, data quality reports.
  • Appoint a Bureau Service Delivery Manager to manage all day-to-day activities and be a main point of contact.

CPV: Public utilities

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 2 yrs 1 moSME
Contract period: 1 Dec 2026 – 30 Dec 2028 (2 yrs 1 mo) · up to 30 Dec 2029 with extensions
Eligibility: 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 London Fire Commissioner buys Public utilities (CPV 65), and who usually turns up

London Fire Commissioner’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: Public utilities (CPV 65) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bid
This buyerLondon Fire Commissioner · 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: 2 of 8 known-size awards · market: division 65 · Greater London (authority’s region), n=18
25%22%

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 registered in Greater London (authority’s region).

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 0 of 3 known-location awards · market: division 65 · Greater London (authority’s region), n=23
0 of 339%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered outside Greater London.

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: 3 decided notices · market: division 65 · UK-wide, n=14
54 days83 days

Half of these awards were announced within 54 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 1 of 13 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: division 65 · Greater London (authority’s region), n=25
8%68%

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 buyer3 lots with bid counts · all categories · too few to chart
The market5 lots with bid counts · division 65 · Greater London (authority’s region)
0% had one bid
Market · select a colour for counts
1 bid0%
Market: 0 of 5 lots with published bid counts.
2–30%
Market: 0 of 5 lots with published bid counts.
4–60%
Market: 0 of 5 lots with published bid counts.
7+100%
Market: 5 of 5 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 buyer4 lots with estimate and award · all categories · too few to chart
The market20 lots with estimate and award · division 65 · UK-wide
25% below estimate
Market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate25%
Market: 5 of 20 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%55%
Market: 11 of 20 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate20%
Market: 4 of 20 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 #125 monthsSME suitablePublished estimate£15k
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 yet23% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 31 similar lots
1 bid23%
7 of 31 similar past lots received 1 bid (23%).
2–329%
9 of 31 similar past lots received 2–3 (29%).
4–619%
6 of 31 similar past lots received 4–6 (19%).
7+29%
9 of 31 similar past lots received 7+ (29%).
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.

—No model forecast yet
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet. The published estimate is £15k, 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
Services
Notice status
Planned procurement
Procurement threshold
Unspecified in notice
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
2 Feb 2026, 12:31 GMT
Last source update
2 Feb 2026, 12:31 GMT
Authority reference
LFB98
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-008918
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Public utilities
Delivery area
Not published
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-061425 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

2 Feb 2026 → 1 Dec 2026 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published262 days ago
    2 Feb 2026, 12:31 GMT
  2. Market engagement240 days ago
    23 Feb 2026, 23:59 GMT

    PME notice then ITT

  3. Tender notice expected204 days ago
    1 Apr 2026, 23:59 BST
  4. Today
    22 Oct 2026
  5. Contract startsin 40 days
    1 Dec 2026

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    2 Feb 2026, 12:31 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

London Fire Commissioner

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PVBD-9678-ZYDR 169 Union Street, London, London, SE1 0LLContact email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure