Find a TenderOpen for tender Tender notice
Published 12 Oct 2026, 08:42 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Provision of Project Management & Cost Consultant Services

Authority: Bedford College (Education)

ServicesOpen procedureAbove thresholdSME suitableVCSE suitable
Sectors: Architecture & Engineering (71) Delivery: UK
Published estimate£700,000≈ £175k / year · £840,000 inc. VAT
Submission deadline 10 Nov 202612:00 GMT · 28d 7h left
Clarification cut-off 30 Oct 202612:00 GMT · questions to the authority
Contract term 4 yrsends 3 Jan 2031 · starts 4 Jan 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Bedford College is seeking an efficient, high quality Project Management & Cost Consultant Service to provide full Project Management & Cost Consultant support on all College projects at values up to £5m. Selected projects above this value will also utilise the appointed supplier – this will be subject to College requirements and be assessed on a job-by-job basis. Similarly, there may be projects below £5m which will not form part of this contract, at the discretion of the College.

CPV: Construction consultancy services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · value published
Lot #1 4 yrsSMEVCSEPublished value£700,000
Contract period: 4 Jan 2027 — 3 Jan 2031 (4 yrs)Eligibility: SME eligibleVCSE eligibleDelivery: UKTurnover guideline: ~£349,760/yr≈ 2× annual value
Value
£700,000 exc. VAT · £840,000 inc. VAT
71530000 Construction consultancy services

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

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
How bids are scored
Quality: 50%Price: 50%
Published award criteria (2)
  • Quality
  • Price

No conditions of participation were published on the notice; check the tender documents.

What this means for your bid
  • Price carries 50 of 100 points — a 10% discount moves about 5 points. This one is won on the number — sharpen the price before polishing the prose.
  • Turnover usually expected at this size: about £349,760 (twice the annual value).

Price arithmetic assumes straight proportional scoring — the tender pack may use another formula. Turnover is an indicative market norm (≈2× annual value), not a published condition.

Competition analysis · published record, not a forecast of who will bid

How Bedford College buys Construction consultancy services (CPV 7153) — and who usually turns up

Bedford College’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 consultancy services (CPV 7153) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bid
This buyerBedford College · 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 2 known-size awards · market: CPV 7153 · East of England (authority’s region), n=28
2 of 264%

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 East of England (authority’s region).

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 2 of 3 known-location awards · market: CPV 7153 · East of England (authority’s region), n=34
2 of 321%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in East of 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: 3 decided notices · market: CPV 7153 · UK-wide, n=22
8 days49 days

Half of these awards were announced within 8 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 3 of 6 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 7153 · East of England (authority’s region), n=32
50%47%

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 buyer6 lots with bid counts · all categories
50% had one bid
The market5 lots with bid counts · CPV 7153 · East of England (authority’s region)
0% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid50% / 0%
Buyer: 3 of 6 lots with published bid counts. Market: 0 of 5 lots with published bid counts.
2–30% / 20%
Buyer: 0 of 6 lots with published bid counts. Market: 1 of 5 lots with published bid counts.
4–633% / 0%
Buyer: 2 of 6 lots with published bid counts. Market: 0 of 5 lots with published bid counts.
7+17% / 80%
Buyer: 1 of 6 lots with published bid counts. Market: 4 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 market23 lots with estimate and award · CPV 7153 · UK-wide
65% below estimate
Market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate65%
Market: 15 of 23 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%17%
Market: 4 of 23 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate17%
Market: 4 of 23 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 715348 monthsSME suitablePublished estimate£700k
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.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

7expected bids12% single-bid risk
forecast from 6 past contests
Forecast chances for this lot
1 bid12%
Chance this lot gets 1 bid: 12%. This is a forecast.
2–310%
Chance this lot gets 2–3: 10%. This is a forecast.
4–625%
Chance this lot gets 4–6: 25%. This is a forecast.
7+53%
Chance this lot gets 7+: 53%. This is a forecast.
Commercial price forecast
i

Where the winning price may land.

The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.

Based on 4 comparable awards. Each lot reflects its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative.

A guide, not a price to bid.

£677k3% below estimate
4 comparable awards
Forecast compared with the buyer’s estimate
Middle 50%£560k–£700k
Half of likely prices fall between £560,267 and £700,000.
Estimate£700k
The buyer published an estimate of £700,000 for this lot.
A 25% chance the award lands exactly on the estimate.

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.

SupplierThis buyer’s earlier contractLotAward valueMatch
—

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.

SupplierWon in this categoryLive contractsAward vs estimate
8 panel places
£334m17 awards in 36m · last this month3 live · £226k
i

Public contracts this supplier still holds.

Its awards whose published end date is still in the future, with their values. Many contracts publish no end date, so this is a floor, not the whole book.

Unexpired says nothing about spare capacity.

no comparable pairs
37 panel places
£139m103 awards in 36m · last this month30 live · £189m
i

Public contracts this supplier still holds.

Its awards whose published end date is still in the future, with their values. Many contracts publish no end date, so this is a floor, not the whole book.

Unexpired says nothing about spare capacity.

at estimate n=15
39 panel places
£91m161 awards in 36m · last this month38 live · £66m
i

Public contracts this supplier still holds.

Its awards whose published end date is still in the future, with their values. Many contracts publish no end date, so this is a floor, not the whole book.

Unexpired says nothing about spare capacity.

9% below n=33
12 panel places
£5.7m30 awards in 36m · last this month4 live · £5.3m
i

Public contracts this supplier still holds.

Its awards whose published end date is still in the future, with their values. Many contracts publish no end date, so this is a floor, not the whole book.

Unexpired says nothing about spare capacity.

7% below n=6
1 panel places
£6.7m6 awards in 36m · last 2 months agoNone on file27% below n=6
Coverage and what to read with care
  • Each figure explains itself. The on a figure says what it is, how it is counted and which scope this notice’s own record came from (class, division, all categories, or the authority’s 24-month row). The two sides are never blended. A lot’s own market is read at its delivery region where the lot names one; where it names several, or none that can be resolved, the chart falls back to the UK-wide record for the same category and says so under the bar. An empty cell means the source published nothing usable. Long form: Methodology.
  • When we call out a difference. A buyer figure is only flagged against the market when the sample is large enough that the gap is unlikely to be chance; at most two callouts appear, always phrased as a comparison with both numbers and the sample size.
  • Coverage (re-measured 5 Oct on the live record, 94,497 awarded procedures of the last three years). 51 % publish a bid count and 72 % a delivery region, so the market column reads the authority’s registered region when the notice names none, labelled. Of the 17,687 award-vs-estimate pairs, 34 % sit exactly on the estimate — the buyer published the award at the figure it advertised. n is on every figure; a thin sample is muted, never hidden, and a distribution is not drawn as percentages below ten observations.
  • “Match”, text similarity, the expected-bid figure and the distribution drawn beneath it are model outputs, not published facts or win probabilities. Find a Tender does not publish who is bidding. Never shown: contact details, payment behaviour, or a recommended price.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record
Procedure method
Open procedure
Legal basis
UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
Procurement category
Services
Notice status
Open for tender
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
12 Oct 2026, 08:42 BST
Last source update
12 Oct 2026, 08:42 BST
Award evaluation window
Submission end — 4 Jan 2027
Authority reference
CA18539
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-095898
Latest notice
Tender notice (UK4)
Classification (CPV)
Construction consultancy services
Delivery area
UK
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-078545 Find a Tender

How to participate & submission route

Official notice Submit via MultiQuote
Submission portal named on this notice: MultiQuote · Who buys & how to bid on MultiQuote
Supplier login requiredElectronic submission allowedLanguage: EN
Access & registration note: Free
Requests to participate (first stage)
—
Tender submission deadline
10 Nov 2026, 12:00 GMT
Clarification deadline
30 Oct 2026, 12:00 GMT
Submission channel
Official e-sourcing portal
Electronic submission
Allowed
Accepted languages
en
Detailed submission instructions & authority contactsFrom official release
To access this opportunity, log in to suppliers.multiquote.com ↗ and view the opportunity. If you are not registered with MultiQuote, please visit suppliers.multiquote.com ↗, complete the registration form on the log in page and quote the title and reference of the notice in your registration.
Published estimate £700,000 excludes VAT (£840,000 including VAT).

Timeline

5 published dates · Europe/London
  1. Tender notice published1 day ago
    12 Oct 2026, 08:42 BST
  2. Clarification questions byin 17 days
    30 Oct 2026, 12:00 GMT
  3. Submission deadlinein 28 days
    10 Nov 2026, 12:00 GMT
  4. Contract startsin 83 days
    4 Jan 2027
  5. Award decision expected byin 84 days
    4 Jan 2027, 23:59 GMT

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Nothing awarded yet
Awards (0)
No award published
Contracts (0)
No contract published
Bid statistics
No aggregate bid statistics published

Notice history

2 events · 1 release on Find a Tender · since 12 Oct 2026
  1. Tender notice published
    12 Oct 2026, 08:42 BSTUK4
  2. First tender notice published
    12 Oct 2026, 08:42 BST

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

Bedford College

Contracting authorityPublic undertaking GB-PPON: PBCW-2828-YLLW Cauldwell Street, Bedford, East of England, MK42 9AHContact name, email, phone

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure

  • Tender notice tenderTender noticeUK4Tender notice on Find a Tender