5 things to consider when looking for grass cutting contracts

The most common type of grass cutting contracts are within the public sector. You can often find hedge trimming and grass cutting contracts together as a subsection of grounds maintenance procurement. Councils are frequently looking for grounds maintenance suppliers, along with educational institutions and more.

Grass cutting contracts could be put out to tender for a number of works such as:

• Road verges
• Burial grounds
• Parks
• Sporting areas
• Amenity spaces
• Roadside sections of grass
• Roundabouts

Typically, for grass cutting contracts, you will need to fill out a pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ). This is also known as a selection questionnaire (SQ). They will be the first hurdle when it comes to trying to secure a contract. In this stage, prospective suppliers will need to answer and fill out a standardised list of pass or fail questions. Once applicants have passed this stage, they’re then invited to tender (ITT).

An ITT can involve various different forms and questions on various subjects relating to the proposed project. Grass cutting contracts will likely include health and safety, contract management, business continuity and so on.

When applying for grass cutting contracts, there are five things to think about.

1. Remember the basics

When writing your grass cutting contracts, try to remember the basics for tendering:

• Answer the question.
• Be clear and concise.
• Review your response.
• Proofread and double-check your answers.
• Submit in plenty of time.

These five bullet points are the fundamentals of writing a bid. Before you even begin, however, you should ask yourself the following:

• Can I fulfil the work?
• Do I have the necessary requirements?
• Do I have enough experience?
• Does my business meet the economic and financial thresholds?

These four questions are a good place to start before completing any tender. They’ll help you establish if it is the right opportunity for your business and make your bid or no-bid decision.

2. Health and Safety

Health and Safety are important aspects to consider with any tender, but particularly grass cutting contracts. Buyers want to be confident that the work carried out on their sites is to the highest standards.

You may be asked what risk assessment practices and health and safety measure you have in place. These could be:

• RIDDOR
• CHAS

3. Pricing

Grass cutting contracts have been known to have a greater weighting on pricing than quality. You’ll want to make sure to price your services competitively. Although, bear in mind that the cheapest bid doesn’t necessarily win. Particularly in public procurement, where the contract will be awarded to the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT).

Public organisations want suppliers to detail their policies, internal procedures and accreditations to allow them to make an informed decision. They want to know which supplier offers the best value of money. MEAT means the buyer is looking at more than just the price. The contractor could be looking for accessibility, ability to deliver on time, innovation and more.

It’s best to read the buyers requirements in detail and carefully construct answers accordingly. The tendering documents will note the requirements you need to fulfil the contract. As a prospective supplier, you should read the requirements and answer accordingly.

4. Case studies

When you’re competing for grass cutting contracts, a buyer will likely ask you for up to three case studies. These need to be past examples of work that you have completed to a similar scope. Typically, they will be to have been within the last five years.

You should get in touch with your previous clients and ask for testimonials that support the work you carried out. This will strengthen your proposal and reassure the buyer of your quality and that you can be trusted.

A pro tip is to use the STAR format when detailing your case studies for grass cutting contracts. Clearly outline the:

• Situation – brief context
• Task – the work you faced
• Action – what you’ve done
• Results – what the result were 

5. Social value

Social value now has a 10% minimum weighting on all public sector tenders. It’s a new procurement model that is used by government bodies to assess the social impact of suppliers. Its new compulsory weighting came in to place in January 2021. It assesses the economic, social and environmental benefits that a company can do if successful with the tender.

Government departments will use the new model to score potential suppliers when evaluating their tender responses. This scoring focuses on the wider, positive impact that businesses provide when delivering the contract. This means more value for money for the UK taxpayer. Below are some examples of social value promises a business could bring to the local community.

• How your company supports COVID-19 recovery.
• Charitable donations.
• Encouraging older people to remain active within their communities or employment.
• Creating opportunities to develop volunteering groups.
• Creating skills and training opportunities.
• Recruiting locally.
• Promoting and supporting local businesses.
• Paying the UK Living Wage.
• Improving market diversity.
• Creating training and employment opportunities for school children, young adults and the long-term unemployed.
• Equal opportunity policies your business implements and adheres to.
• The environmental considerations you take place to help fight climate change.
• Reducing waste and increase waste recovery and recycling.
• Protecting the environment for future generations.

Consistency is key to ensuring equal opportunities for suppliers. Therefore, a focus will be on the implementation of the new model to derive the maximum social value from contracts.

It’s worth putting the time and effort into figuring out the social value promises that your company can deliver. To further stand out from the crowd, you could research the buyer’s social value promises. You could then demonstrate how you are able to help fulfil their promises.

Where to find grass cutting contracts

At Hudson, we’re experts in the tendering process. Facilities Tenders is one of Hudson Discover’s 11 tendering portals. They can save you time when sourcing relevant grass cutting contracts for your business. This allows you to spend more time on the important things, such as running your business.

Use a sector-specific portal with a variety of opportunities

We understand how tricky the procurement world can be if you’re new. By using one portal that sources unique, public and private sector opportunities, you can save precious hours of your day. It can be very time-consuming trawling hundreds of sites a day to find a contract that’s perfect for your business. Especially if they’re registered with CPV codes which are known for being unreliable.

Our Opportunity Trackers manually upload and source contracts for our clients. They search thousands of sources a day, uploading them to our portals. You can then filter these opportunities via keyword, location, budget and more.

Join Facilities Tenders

If you’re looking for grass cutting contracts, Facilities Tenders will save you time and get you results.

When you sign up, you’ll receive an email bulletin when new grass cutting contracts are published, plus 24-hour portal access. You can browse all the available tenders, large and small, as often as you like! You’ll even get a dedicated Account Manager on hand to help answer any questions you may have.

We track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

• Property Maintenance Contracts
• Solar Energy Contracts
• Electrical Testing Contracts
• Cemetery Contracts
• Grounds Maintenance Contracts
• Cleaning Contracts
• Facilities Management Tenders
• Window Cleaning Contracts
• Manned Security Tenders
• Landscape Design Tenders
• Grass Cutting Contracts

Book a free live demo today to learn how we can grow your business!

Below are some past grass cutting contracts we’ve sourced on the Facilities Tenders portal:

Amenity Grass Cutting at selected sites throughout Pembrokeshire

Pembrokeshire County Council- Wales- Budget: £1,000,000

08-01-2021

BTC Invitation to Tender Grass Cutting

Barton Town Council- East Midlands- Budget: £30,000

15-01-2021

Bar Hill Village Grass Cutting Contract 2021 – 2023

Bar Hill Parish Council- Eastern- Budget: £57,000

20-01-2021

Grass Cutting – North West England

Forestry Commission- North West- Budget: £315,000

11-01-2021

Grass Cutting and Landscape Maintenance Contract

Hjaltland Housing Association Ltd- Scotland- Budget: £105,000

15-01-2021

Book a free live demo today to learn how we can grow your business!

Bid writing support

Once you’ve found a grass cutting contract that you want to go for, but don’t know where to start – we can help! Here at Hudson, we know how to make your business stand out from the over-saturated marketplace.

We offer bid writing services that can help you with your next grass cutting contract. Our team of Bid Writers have over 50 years of bidding experience and an 87% success rate. We have four bid writing support packages to help you gain success in your tendering efforts:

1. Tender Mentor

Our Tender Mentor service can help make sure your bid is the best it can possibly be. Our Bid Writers can provide feedback on a grass cutting tender you’ve already written. They’ll point out any errors before you submit.

2. Tender Writing

Simply send us the bid specification you want to go for and our Bid Writers will write the whole thing for you. They’ll let you know how long it’ll take and if they need anything further from you. They’ll even submit it on your behalf! This service is priced per bid, and we’ll provide you with a full tender writing breakdown.

3. Tender Improvement

Tender Improvement is perfect for those who are already tendering but aren’t seeing success from their efforts. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous bid responses and work with you to develop winning content. If you select this service, you’ll receive the following and more:

• A 12-month subscription to our Facilities Tenders portal.
• Access to Global Bid Directors and Senior Bidding Professionals.
• A dedicated Bid Consultant with the programme lasting up to three months.

4. Tender Ready

The Tender Ready package if for those businesses who are completely new to the tendering process. We can help you every step of the way. We offer a three-stage process over four weeks. We’ll help you develop a bid library and give guidance on how to increase your quality and tender competitiveness. You’ll also receive:

• Three days Bid Consultancy support towards one tender, private sector proposal or public sector framework.
• A bespoke proposal covering 5,000 words of responses accustomed to your company.
• Three days Bid Consultancy support, coaching and training with Hudson’s senior team.
• And more!

Get in touch today to find out how we can help your business grow!