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Horticulture and Landscaping Tenders: The Secrets to Success

Looking for tips on finding and winning horticulture and landscaping tenders? Here’s 4 secrets from the experts!

Got questions about horticulture and landscaping tenders? Welcome to Facilities Tenders! Here, we have plenty of answers to some of the many questions you likely have. Want to know where to find horticulture and landscaping tenders? Perhaps you want to learn how to win these and write winning proposals. Luckily, you’re in the right place! Read on to learn more…

What are horticulture and landscaping tenders?

For those completely new to horticulture and landscaping tenders, here’s what they are.

Tenders for horticulture and landscaping works are contracts which organisations can bid for. A buyer may require certain landscaping work that they cannot deliver themselves. So, they will outsource to another company/individual.

Various suppliers can bid for the contract, and the buyer will select the most suitable candidate. The suppliers must provide a bid proposal expressing why they are the most suitable for the contract.

Where can you find horticulture and landscaping tenders?

If you are looking for horticulture and landscaping tenders, then you’re in the right place. As part of Hudson Discover, Facilities Tenders is one of 11 sector-specific portals.

These portals are designed to make the tendering process as easy as possible. As you may have found by now, it’s hard to find the perfect horticulture and landscaping tenders. Using a search engine such as Google will bring up countless results. It’ll be a challenge navigating so many sites. Plus, you’ll have to read lengthy tender documents to find out if the contract is suitable for you. This takes up a lot of time! But there are easier ways.

Our portals allow you to use filters to find select tenders that are suitable for your business. You can see tenders based on keywords, budget, location, and deadline. This way, you can instantly see if a contract is right for you.

Here’s some examples of the horticulture and landscaping tenders we source on our portals:

Rural Stirling H.A. Grounds Maintenance Framework 2022-2026

Rural Stirling Housing Association Ltd – Scotland – Budget: £150,000

Provision & Maintenance of Floral Arrangements

Neston Town Council – North West – Budget: £20,000

Pear Tree Fields Planting

Badsey & Aldington Parish Council – West Midlands – Budget: £40,000

Northern Boundary Tree Planting

United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority – South East – Budget: £50,000

Grounds Maintenance for Poringland Parish Council

Poringland Parish Council – Eastern – Budget: £12,500

We also track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

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

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite allows you to identify tender opportunities – even when you’re busy. Our two upgraded packages can improve your competitor awareness and bidding success rate. Each can help save you even more time when searching for garden maintenance tenders.

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Facilities and Logistics, for example.
  • A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
  • Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid strategy.
  • Weekly phone calls with your Account Manager to discuss viable tendering opportunities

Contact us for further help and support for growing your business.

How can you win horticulture and landscaping tenders?

To win horticulture and landscaping tenders, there are certain secrets you should know. We sat down with some professional Bid Writers from Hudson Succeed to see how they win tenders.

1.    Don’t submit your proposal after the deadline

Deadlines for tenders are extremely strict. If you submit your bid even a minute late, you won’t be considered. It is best to use bid management skills to stay organised and on track with your bids. This way, you’ll avoid any last-minute delays and issues. These can be incredibly stressful and can cost you all your time and hard work! Don’t risk everything by being unprepared.

2.    Don’t use technical jargon

The buyer will likely not be familiar with your industry. So, don’t use any technical jargon that they are unlikely to understand. This will confuse them, and they’ll not understand the important and useful parts of your proposal.

3.    Stick to the word count

Part of writing a tender is showcasing that you can follow instructions and a brief. So, make sure you stick to any given word count for your answers. If you don’t, you are showing the buyer they cannot trust you to carry out tasks.

4.    Make your proposal simple and easy to read

For our last tip on winning horticulture and landscaping tenders, make sure your bid is easy to read. The buyer doesn’t want to read a load of waffle about irrelevant points. They want you to answer their questions. Stick to this task and ensure it is easy to engage them. Otherwise, you’ll easily be forgotten and won’t stand out against competitors.

Summary

What are horticulture and landscaping tenders?

Horticulture and landscaping tenders are contracts which organisations can bid on to carry out certain works.

You can find opportunities via our Facilities Tenders portal.

How can you win horticulture and landscaping tenders?

  1. Don’t submit your proposal after the deadline
  2. Don’t use technical jargon
  3. Stick to the word count
  4. Make your proposal simple and easy to read.

Need assistance with bidding for horticulture and landscaping tenders? We can help with that too!

You may not have the time or resources in house to write a winning tender response in house. Outsourcing to tender writing specialists can help you secure your next contract.

Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, provide four levels of bid writing support services. Our Bid Writers have over 60 years of collective bid writing experience and an 87% success rate. Whether you’re new to tendering or need your response proofread – we can help.

Tender Ready

Tender Ready is the perfect programme for those who are completely new to tendering. You’ll have access to an expert Bid Consultant to answer any questions that you may have.

Tender Improvement

If you have already been applying for tenders but aren’t seeing success our Tender Improvement package can help. Our Bid Writers will go over your previous submissions and provide feedback and guidance.

Tender Writing

Have you found the perfect courier delivery contract for your business but are struggling to start? Send it over to our Bid Writing team and they can write the whole response for you. If you use our Tender Writing service, they’ll even submit it on your behalf!

Tender Mentor  

Our Bid Writers can look over a bid response you’ve already written, checking it for errors before you submit. Sometimes you just need another pair of eyes to go over your response and our Tender Mentor service can help.

Contact us today to find out more about how we can help.

Cleaning Contracts: A Complete Guide to Finding and Securing Cleaning Contracts

Everything you need to know to find & win cleaning contracts

Finding cleaning contracts can turn into a bit of a minefield if you don’t know where to look. There are thousands of websites posting new cleaning contracts, in the form of tendering opportunities, daily across the UK.

Buyers procuring cleaning contracts can in sectors from education, local authorities, SMEs, public spaces, leisure centres, supermarkets and more. They can have varied budgets ranging from £5,000 to multi-million-pound frameworks.

If you’ve never tendered before, you may have some questions. This blog will provide answers to your cleaning contract FAQs as well as some top tips on winning the bids.

So, let’s start off with an easy one…

Can I buy cleaning contracts?

You may be wondering if you can just buy cleaning contracts, and you are not alone. However, the answer to your question is short and simple – no.

The cleaning business has always been a highly competitive marketplace. This is true now more than ever. COVID-19 has led to a steep increase in both the public and private sectors putting out increased cleaning contracts. Unfortunately, you can’t just go out and buy cleaning contracts. So, here’s how to go about it instead.

What is tendering?

Let’s start off with a simple question – what is tendering? Cleaning contracts are primarily procured through tendering. This is when a business requires a good or a service that they can’t do themselves. Or, if the business contract exceeds the public sector threshold, they will then be put out to tender. Then, any potential suppliers can respond to this call with their tender response.

A number of businesses may want to procure cleaning services, and the cleaning sector itself is vast. It covers areas such as:

  • Residential
  • Educational Institutions
  • Commercial
  • Corporate
  • Industrial
  • Local government
  • Culture and Heritage Sites

However, don’t despair. This blog will tell you how to secure a cleaning tender instead as you’re unable to buy cleaning contracts.

A 10-step guide to how to secure a cleaning contract:

  1. Tracking the opportunity

Making sure you are tendering for the right opportunities for your businesses is vital. This ensures consistent growth and development which could lead to expansion. In order to do this, you need to know where to find the right opportunities for your business.

This can be done via tendering portals. We host live cleaning contract opportunities on our Facilities Tenders portal. You can filter the live results via keyword, budget, location and more on one site. This saves you countless hours that would otherwise be spent trawling hundreds of websites daily.

Here are some past cleaning contracts that were sourced on our portal:

ATD Specialist Cleaning 2021

Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency- Eastern- Budget: £60,000

Cleaning – Dynamic Purchasing System

Advantage South West- South West- Budget: Undisclosed

Hall Green School – Cleaning Tender

Hall Green School- West Midlands- Budget: £435,000

Mobile Cleaning Operative

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council- West Midlands- Budget: £5,000

Provision of Cleaning Services

Leicester City Council- East Midlands- Budget: Undisclosed

Join Facilities Tenders

We track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

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

Once you have sourced what you think is the right opportunity for your business, you should ask yourself:

  • Do I have the experience?
  • Can I fulfil this contract?
  • Are there any turnover requirements?
  • Do I have the specified qualifications and accreditations?

If you can answer yes to all of the above, then you should proceed onto the PQQ or SQ stage.

  1. PQQ

pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) or a selection questionnaire (SQ) are used to establish the minimum eligibility criteria of a business. You may be asked to submit evidence of past contracts your business has carried out, or your businesses financial standing.

  1. ITT

An ITT stands for an invitation to tender. This is the next step of the tendering process if your company is shortlisted from the PQQ or SQ stage. An ITT is a formal document that’s issued by the buyer outlining the scope of the project. This invites a business to submit a formal tender for work.

An ITT is different from a PQQ or SQ because it outlines how you will commit to the project delivery. It often includes quality questions. They’ll ask how you carry out certain processes, what equipment you use, or what policies you have in place.

An ITT is often evaluated using the MEAT.

  1. MEAT

The most economically advantageous tender (MEAT) method means that the buyer is looking at more than just the price. They are putting a certain percentage on price but are also looking at the quality of your response, too. A combined score from these two weightings will establish a final score. The organisation with the best overall score is then awarded the contract.

  1. Social Value

You want to ensure when applying for opportunities in the public sector that you have thought about social value. There is now a mandatory 10% weighting on social value within a quality response. In some cases, it can hold a weight of up to 30%. You should take into consideration the social, economic and environmental aspects of the contract.

The buyer wants to know the commitments you’re making and ones you can keep. This new social value model came into use within the UK in January 2021. Perhaps you use eco-friendly products and are passionate about waste reduction.

Within your response, you could note:

  • How your organisation supports COVID-19 recovery.
  • The environmental considerations you have in place.
  • What equal opportunities you’ve implemented.
  • How you’re creating new jobs and developing new skills within the local community.
  • That you pay all employees the UK Living Wage.
  1. Provide Evidence

Up to three case studies may be required when submitting a tender response. It’s standard across public sector tendering for the buyer to ask for at least three past contracts of work. The case studies typically need to have been completed within the last five years.

It’s best to match your case studies to work of a similar scope that you have carried out. Testimonials from happy clients are always a plus. This demonstrates to the buyer that you are able to carry out the contract.

You need to make sure your cases studies are:

  • Detailed
  • Thorough
  • Well-developed
  • Showcase your company’s abilities.
  • Back up what you’re saying with evidence.

For example, imagine there is a contract that is looking to procure cleaning services of a primary school in Cheshire. You could include case studies of cleaning services you’ve carried out in a primary school of a similar location. Or, you could showcase the work you have carried out in other educational institutions.

  1. Relate to the specification

It is vital that you showcase your understanding of the specification in your response. Your response should demonstrate that you can provide the service that the buyer is looking for. The tender documentation for cleaning contracts will often include a specification of the exact requirements for the cleaning task needed. It’s imperative that you reference this in your method statement. This proves that you are aware of the buyer’s requirements and you are capable of delivering them.

For example, a buyer requires a certain room cleaning within an office using a specific piece of equipment. Make sure you replicate this scenario in your response. If you ignore it, you imply that you haven’t read the documentation properly. This will be greatly off-putting to buyers.

  1. Framework agreements

If you’re new to tendering, a framework agreement may be a good place to start. They can help you build up experience if you don’t already have it.

Frameworks are multi-supplier agreements, meaning there are often more places available. They typically run over longer terms ranging from 2 – 10 years. If you secure a place on a public sector framework, it can be a very lucrative opportunity for your business. This is because it is a guaranteed form of income, which can bring you peace of mind.

As you cannot buy cleaning contracts, applying for a framework agreement is a great opportunity that’s not to be missed. Buyers release a framework opportunity and then places are awarded to the best suppliers. Goods and services on frameworks are often divided into ‘Lots’. This means your business doesn’t have to fulfil the whole contract – only the chosen section.

You may find it useful to contact your local council to request to be considered for framework agreements. You should ask if they have any open as a subcontractor. This will allow you to build your company’s experience and is a great place to start if you’re an SME.  

  1. Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPS)

DPS’ are similar to framework agreements in that there are multiple suppliers on one system. They can run for years at a time and your business is able to join at any point while it’s open.

  1. Bid Writing Services

If you still need help with writing a cleaning contract response – we can help. Here at Hudson, we are experts in Bid Writing. Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, have an 87% success rate and over 40-years bidding experience across multiple industries.

We offer four Bid Writing services to help you secure your next contract:

  1. The Tender Readyprogramme
  2. Tender Improvementpackage
  3. Tender Mentorservice
  4. Tender Writing

So, instead of wondering if you can buy cleaning contracts, you now know how to apply through the tendering process.

Now you know that you can’t buy cleaning contracts, you may be wondering what is required from them. Cleaning contracts can cover a multitude of services. For example, janitorial, commercial, school cleaning, window cleaning, toilet blocks, specialist cleans and more.

Commercial cleaning contracts are often used to procure cleaning services for commercial buildings. Buyers can be in either the public or private sector. If you are unsure on whether you should be tendering for commercial cleaning contracts, the following advantages may help.

The advantages of tendering for commercial cleaning contracts

Tendering for work can have many advantages, particularly when tendering in the public sector. The procurement process has been updated by the government in order to level the playing field for SMEs. The government are actively looking to spend £1 in £3 with SMEs. This means there has never been a better time to tender for work as a smaller business. Other advantages for commercial cleaning contracts include:

Guaranteed pay

When doing business with public sector organisation, they are legally obligated to pay you upon winning a contract. The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) goes one step further and must pay its suppliers within 60-days of invoicing. This is to comply with the Prompt Payment Code. This creates a great piece of mind when tendering for work, particularly if you’re a first-time supplier.

Gain experience

Commercial cleaning contracts can enable you to gain experience. Such experience is crucial when tendering for work, as mentioned above. Buyers will require case studies and the more contracts you fulfil, the more experience you will have. This can then lead your business to apply for bigger contracts, helping your business grow.

Sustainability

Tendering for commercial cleaning contracts can help secure a pipeline of work for your business. Winning a place on a long-term contract, DPS or framework can create a sustainable future for your business. Our Bid Writers have helped our clients to secure upwards of four years of income from one win. This is no doubt one of the biggest advantages of tendering, and an attractive prospect to any business.

Make contacts

When carrying out a commercial cleaning contract, you will be forming new business relationships. This will help you work with more buyers as you will be making contracts. When tendering for future commercial cleaning contracts, you’ll be able to demonstrate that you’ve had previous happy clients.

Every business owner knows that without contacts, you’re in danger of your business plateauing. Building a base of contacts and connections can present your business with new opportunities. These opportunities may then lead to collaborations and inter-trading.

These advantages should convince you that there has never been a better time to tender. Your cleaning business should seriously consider tendering as a viable strategy for business growth.

Top Tips for Winning Janitorial Cleaning Bids

Janitorial cleaning bids can cover a range of services across a range of buildings, homes, and public facilities. At Facilities Tenders we source tenders for public and private sector janitorial work, including:

  • Government and public service bids, i.e. cleaning public sector care homes.
  • Commercial bids, i.e. cleaning museums.
  • Outdoor bids, i.e. gutter cleaning.
  • Transport bids, i.e. bus washing services.
  • Education bids, i.e. school cleaning.
  • Energy and utility bids, i.e. supplying gas and power.
  • Construction bids, i.e. deep cleaning of a company’s units/vans.
  • Industrial bids, i.e. cleaning power station facilities.

See a service your company provides? Great. If not, this is just a small selection of available opportunities for cleaning services – we source hundreds! Book a free live demo to view which live tenders are currently available near you.

Below are some previous janitorial cleaning tenders sourced on our portal:

Cleaning & Janitorial Services 2020

ITSLIGO- International- Budget: Undisclosed

Cleaning and Janitorial Materials and Washroom Services

National Procurement Service (Welsh Government)- Wales- Budget: £12,000,000

Cleaning and Janitorial Supplies

North Western Universities Purchasing Consortium Limited- North West- Budget: £12,000,000

GB-Leicester: COVID 19 Related PPE and Janitorial

University of Leicester- East Midlands- Budget: £100,000

Provision of Cleaning and Janitorial Services at the British High Commission Islamabad & British Deputy High Commissions at Karachi and Lahore

Foreign & Commonwealth Office- London- Budget: Undisclosed

Why should you tender for janitorial cleaning work?

Tendering isn’t just for large companies – solo service providers and small to medium enterprise (SMEs) can benefit too! Our bid writing division, Hudson Succeed, have worked closely with a range of cleaning businesses to win janitorial cleaning bids. There’s potential for huge business growth through tendering, and there are always contracts out there to bid for. The Opportunity Trackers at our tender tracking branch, Facilities Tenders, source new public sector janitorial opportunities every day!

Here are 7 things to consider before – and during – a janitorial cleaning bid!

1. Research the industry

What are the implications for the cleaning industry after a year like 2020? Firstly – cleaning service providers deserve national praise for the exceptionally important role they’ve played throughout the pandemic in 2020! Many cleaning and hygiene key workers have been on the frontline, fighting the virus, throughout the year. In 2020, cleanliness is more crucial than ever. Delia Cannings, representative of the Association of Healthcare Cleaning Professionals (AHCP) said:

Cleaning operatives in the healthcare sector played a key role during the pandemic and have done an incredible job. Many have gone above and beyond, working longer hours, taking on extra responsibilities and adopting new standards and practices to prevent COVID-19 contamination.

Has demand changed in the industry?

There’s no doubt it’s been a trying time for the industry. Service providers have been forced to react and adapt. Lauren Kyle, representing the Business Services Association (BSA), discussed the shift in demand for cleaning bids in the cleaning industry:

Our members operate in a wide range of sectors, some of which – such as sports and leisure, transport, and retail – have seen a downturn, while others – such as schools, and hospitals – have seen heightened demand for cleaning and disinfection. 

In light of shifting trends, can your cleaning service adapt to meet new demands? For instance, can you seek experience in a healthcare setting to strengthen your case studies when tendering for in-demand services? Are you qualified to provide janitorial cleaning work in schools?

Using a sector-specific tendering portal which allows for keyword filtering will help you find relevant work, quickly and easily. We’ve seen a surge in public sector work on our Facilities Tender portal recently. There is always a steady stream of janitorial cleaning opportunities, particularly for schools and healthcare. Get in touch for more information on our portal and start finding live tenders available near you!

2. Prepare your documentation

Janitorial cleaning bids can be tricky. There are some things you should consider in advance to make sure you’re not wasting your time. Ensure your company is prepared to tender. For instance, a few areas of documentation worth considering before you even begin tendering are:

  • Accreditations

Do you have the relevant accreditations for janitorial cleaning bids? Tender specifications will often require that your company has a specific set of accreditations. There are also government requirements you must comply with for trading, including relevant insurance. You should prepare your company for tendering by ensuring you comply with all the requirements for your sector. This may include:

    • A detailed health and safety manual
    • Public liability insurance
    • Professional indemnity insurance
    • Employers’ liability insurance.
  • Turnover

Is your turnover good enough for the job? Buyers may set a turnover threshold in the specification to ensure your company is capable of taking on a job. This is particularly likely for large contracts. As a general rule, we never advise bidding for a contract that is more than half your annual turnover. For example, if you turn over £100k, we advise bidding for tenders with a maximum budget of £50k.

You may need to attach your most recent audited/unaudited accounts as proof of turnover. This is usually required early on in the process of a tender, i.e. the PQQor SQ. It should therefore be made clear whether your company’s turnover meets the threshold early on. This is always worth double-checking before going any further and wasting time with a tender.

  • Corporate literature

Does your business have the relevant corporate literature, ready to submit in a tender response? Is it well-designed and easy to read?

At Hudson, we can fully prepare you for tendering. We’ll create high-quality and company-branded content for you through our Tender Ready service. We’ll first create a checklist to determine what is needed to succeed with any janitorial cleaning bids. Then, we’ll work in collaboration with your team to produce detailed, precise, and concise documents, ready to tender!

3. Showcase your past experience

Another area you should ensure you’re prepared for when tendering for janitorial cleaning bids is demonstrable past experience. Do you have past experience in similar jobs that will prove you’re the best candidate? Are you certain this experience is relevant? How many previous contract examples does the specification request? Make sure you fit the bill here.

If you do have the credentials, you’ll need to provide evidence to back-up each claim. This will often be done through case studies. Our free Tender VLE masterclass walks you through how to set out your case studies effectively in a tender response.

Usually, it can be expected that you’ll to be asked to provide at least three relevant case studies. This applies to each service you provide. Make sure you describe and evaluate your experience in a way that that demonstrates why you’re the most qualified provider. Keep the information as relevant and fitted to the bid as you can! There’s no room for any irrelevant information on a past job, even if the overall experience itself is relevant. Every word counts!

4. Consider the scope of work – fully!

The scope of work is an important element of any bid. Janitorial cleaning bids, especially, have a lot of elements to consider. You will need to consider every aspect of the job to accurately generate a price and timescale. You should read and digest the full tender specification and supporting documents before you begin your tender response. To ensure the job is worth tendering for, you must be confident you’re the best service provider for the job!

Read carefully. You don’t want to miss an important element of the tender that disqualifies you. Neither should you ignore any aspects of the tender that may be out of reach for your services.

For example, the buyer might require cleaning services for 100+ schools across multiple counties. Are you certain you have the workforce and resources to deliver a job of this scope? And if so, do you have the experience to back this up and prove yourself on paper? Always be realistic and responsible in your tender responses. Only bid for work you know you have a solid chance of winning.

Some things you may need to query for a janitorial cleaning bid, for instance, include:

  • What equipment and supplies are required?
  • The number of staff members required to complete the work.
  • How large is the facility in square feet?
  • How many separate rooms require cleaning?
  • What kind of flooring is in each room?

Ask for as much information as possible on the building or facilities which are to be cleaned. Is something not specified in the tender, such as floor type? If you feel this would be helpful in judging the scope of work, ask for clarification!

5. Visit the site, whenever possible

Can you arrange a site visit with the buyer where you can visit the facility and assess it first-hand? If so – great! You’ll be in a much better bidding position. Site visits can be a very useful tool while tendering for janitorial cleaning bids.

As we’ve just mentioned, the more information you have before bidding, the better. Physically seeing the floor types, for instance, gives you a clearer view of the scope of the work. There’s only so much you can envisage from the black and white words of a tender specification. In a site visit, you can physically assess all parts of the building(s) where the job will take place. In doing so, you may want to consider:

  • Size of the rooms
  • Fixtures
  • Surface materials
  • Item counts, i.e. How many dining tables? How many toilet facilities?

A first-hand assessment of the site allows you to create a much more meaningful proposal. You can note the difficulty levels of different areas and better prepare for how the job will unfold, for instance. This helps you to finetune your timescale and workforce, to be as accurate as possible.

Remember to follow all necessary safety precautions during site visits, such as wearing a mask and maintaining social distancing.

6. Price your bid accurately

At its heart, the tendering process is designed to help buyers find the Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT). While the process offers suppliers a fair chance of winning, your pricing will always be compared to your competitors. Pricing is always an important aspect of a bid.

Check the weighting of how your bid will be evaluated in the award criteria of the tender specification. The bulk of the weighting will often be split between cost and quality. For example, janitorial cleaning may be assessed by 60% price and 40% quality, or vice versa. Some bids may even be based 100% on price.

Regardless of its weighting, you should always calculate your price accurately and competitively.

Consider the direct costs of the work (i.e. wages, supplies, equipment) and quote a price that allows you to make a profit. There are two don’ts to remember here:

  • Don’t overcharge to boost your profits, or you’ll end up wasting time on a tender that you’ll inevitably lose. The tendering process can be very time-consuming. Always aim for the lowest price you can, whilst still making a profit.
  • Don’t undercharge either. Slashing your prices dramatically may seem like a good way to become the MEAT, if you’re bidding for experience. However, this will likely scupper your chances. If your price is dramatically lower than the other bidders (who have all quoted similar prices), this will look odd. Buyers will become suspicious of particularly low prices and assume foul play, or incurred costs later down the line.

7. Ensure your writing is precise, concise and high quality

There’s a lot to consider in janitorial cleaning bids. However, you should never skimp on the quality of the writing and presentation of a bid. The proof is in the prose! A well-written, precise and easy to read proposal can be essential to the success of a bid.

Don’t worry if you don’t have natural writing prowess. Our bid writers at Hudson Succeed can provide you with a range of tender support. Our experts have an 87% success rate and are experienced with janitorial cleaning bids. Through our Tender Writing service, our Bid Writers will:

  • Write your tender response;
  • Answer any clarification questions you may have;
  • Advise on supporting documents and attach them;
  • Submit the final bid on your behalf.

School maintenance contracts

School maintenance contracts often involve maintaining and updating an inventory of equipment and building fixtures within a school premises. These duties require service contracts as educational institutions often look to outsourcing the works or services.

School maintenance contracts can cover a wide range of services. These could include:

The tendering process

Tendering for school maintenance contracts generally follows a standard process. You will often need to complete a pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) or a selection questionnaire (SQ). This is a preliminary stage that establishes if you meet the necessary minimum eligibility criteria. It’s usually a box-ticking exercise that generally asks for the following information:

  • Company information
  • Subcontractor information
  • Economic and financial standing
  • Health and safety policy and risk assessment
  • Grounds for mandatory exclusion
  • Non-collusion statement
  • Equality and diversity policy
  • Environmental policy
  • Modern Slavery policy.

Once you have passed this initial stage, you’ll be shortlisted and sent an invitation to tender (ITT). This is called a closed tender. This stage requires you to write your tender responses to the buyer’s questions. The tender documents will contain information such as:

  • A buyer profile – detailing the buyer’s overall missions and objectives.
  • The award criteria – detailing how the tender is awarded and evaluated.
  • Specification – an in-depth document detailing what’s required.
  • Separate appendices – these vary depending on what’s being procured, it can include pricing schedules or key performance indicators for example.

Framework agreements

Framework agreements are often used as a tendering procedure for school maintenance contracts within the public sector. A framework agreement is a multi-supplier agreement that can run for months or several years. A framework agreement for school maintenance contracts could look something like this:

  • Lot 1 – The Provision and Installation of Electrical Equipment
  • Lot 2 – Painting and Decorating Works
  • Lot 3 – Grounds Maintenance Services
  • Lot 4 – Manned Security
  • Lot 5 – Janitorial Cleaning

So, if your business specialises in janitorial cleaning, you need only apply to lot 5. Some framework agreements may allow suppliers to apply for multiple lots, although this is often capped at three. When applying to multiple lots, you will need to supply the buyer with evidential proof of your capability. You will need to demonstrate that you have the necessary resources, money, experience and ability to deliver all three.

Methods of measurement  

There are often multiple methods of measurement for school maintenance contracts. These could include, but aren’t limited to the following:

Each aspect can be assessed either individually or as a mix. A buyer is looking for those tenders that score highly across the board. The weightings for the evaluation of school maintenance contracts vary depending on the buyer’s needs.

private buyer is not restricted by the same policies and processes as a public buyer is. They are able to choose the cheapest bid if they want. However, a public buyer must award the bid to the most economically advantageous tender. This is because a public buyer must demonstrate the most value for money when spending taxpayer’s money.

Social value and sustainability

Schools routinely purchase products and services and it’s up to them if they purchase sustainable consumer goods. With many wanting to head towards more sustainable procurement of products and services, they may wish to purchase:

  • Cleaning products with reduced environmental impacts
  • Recycled paper and stationery products
  • Kitchen equipment that’s energy efficient
  • Vehicles that are fuel efficient
  • Water efficiency equipment
  • Office machinery that’s energy efficient.

When tendering in the public sector, there’s now a mandatory minimum weighting on 10% on social value. A supplier will need to assess the relevant economic, environmental and social aspects while carrying out the contract. These could include the following examples:

  • COVID-19 recovery
  • The environmental considerations taken
  • Creation of new jobs to tackle unemployment
  • Equal opportunities and diversity policies implemented
  • Paying employees the National Living Wage to tackle economic inequality.

Now you have read the complete guide to cleaning contracts. You should have a better idea of what to expect when tendering for contracts. However, if you’re still struggling with your response we can help.

7 Aspects of Tendering for Cleaning Contracts You Haven’t Considered

1.    Don’t dismiss joining up with other companies

Imagine it. You’re excited about a contract until you realise that you don’t currently have the required skills or resources. Allowing for cooperation with other companies can seriously expand your service capabilities. And at the same time, both parties are earning valuable experience. Tendering for cleaning contracts can mean split lots, so this could be a reality for your company in the future. If you’re an SME, this environment gives you the opportunity to not only compete but thrive and grow. Ultimately, subcontracting is a solid method for entering the tendering process.

2.    Spell out your experience

In the private sector, businesses use networking and professional relationships to help secure tendering success. However, in the public sector, this isn’t possible due to an emphasis on transparency and fairness. Either way, spell out your experience and what makes you stand out. When it comes to tendering for cleaning contracts, you’ll be evaluated on the tender you submit, not anything else.

3.    Service offerings

If you have a chance, look at your competitors on the market. What service offerings do you sell that they don’t? Outlining the specific benefits of your unique services helps raise awareness of gaps in the market. Let’s say, for example, that your competitors don’t supply a specific product that is required from the buyer. By highlighting this product offering, you’re inadvertently pointing to your competitor’s shortcomings.

4.     Specialise your team when writing the bid

You’re writing the bid, and you can’t seem to get the part on health and safety policies right. What’s gone wrong?

You haven’t employed the experts…

When you’re writing company policies, it’s best to use the company expert. They’ll approach the issue with an experienced background and further validate what you’re saying.

5.     Receiving feedback

One of the fastest ways to improve your bid responses is by simply listening to feedback. The buyer has a duty to address what went right and what went wrong with your bid. And in the case of the private sector, if they don’t offer it, be proactive in asking for feedback. Even if you’re successful, feedback is still valuable when tendering for cleaning contracts.

6. Get your questions prepared!

Too many businesses see the buyer as some unapproachable figure that doesn’t want to be contacted.

And frankly, this isn’t true.

A sign of a good Bid Writer is someone who utilises every opportunity for contact.

Every email and clarification question should be well thought out so that you’re not wasting time.

The buyer will respect your initiative and consider this attitude in the evaluation process.

7.     Why does your business exist?

Your cleaning services and pricing is vital to any bid. But there’s one aspect that’s never spoken about – the reason behind your business.

Two questions should take precedence when thinking about this…

Who are we?

What do we do?

This can be covered in impact statements.

“At X Cleaning, we generate jobs in which employees are valued as pivotal roles of the company. Together, we positively impact the lives of X county.”

“Cleaning is not only our passion but our difference. We want to change the game when it comes to cleaning services.”

Statements like this help inform the buyer of who you are, your purpose and how you positively impact your area.

Our success

One cleaning service provider we saw success with is APM Cleaning. We worked closely with them to secure work on multiple lots on a framework agreement. They provided the following feedback on our services:

The Hudson Team were very reactive in their ways of working and handled all communications very effectively and efficiently. This partnership is credit to the recent win for the Prosper DPS for Facilities Management, which we were successful on all LOTs applied. We would recommend Hudson to any company who require bid support of any kind!”

– Samantha Reid, Director, APM Cleaning.

Our bid writers also produce successful bids across a range of sectors, helping clients see results such as:

  • Securing £200million over a 5year period
  • Increasing the organisation’s turnover by 20% from one bid submission
  • Securing 4-years of sustainable income
  • Winning a contract for £350k on their first bid
  • A guaranteed £6million of income, over four years.

Find more results on our testimonials pageCall or email us for a free quote.

Conclusion

Tendering for cleaning contracts is an excellent way to grow your business. The best way to see success is to ensure you are well-prepared and well-supported for the tendering process! We offer a range of support to carry you through, from finding the tender to becoming the successful bidder.

If you follow our tips and considerations, you’ll be well on your way to securing future cleaning contracts.

Get in touch to find out how we can help your cleaning business grow.

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite allows you to identify tendering opportunities even when you’re busy. Our two upgraded packages can improve your competitor awareness and bidding success rate. Each can help save you even more time when searching for school maintenance contract tenders.

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

  • A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Facilities and Logistics, for example.
  • Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid
  • Weekly phone calls with your dedicated Account Manager to discuss viable facilities tendering opportunities.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package also includes:

  • All of the above.
  • Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
  • Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business grow.

How to Bid on HVAC Service Contracts: 5 things to consider

Everything you need to know about how to bid on HVAC Service Contracts

 Do you need some help with how to bid for HVAC service contracts?

 What should I include in my HVAC service contract?

 If you’re learning how to bid on HVAC Service contracts, you’ll be wondering what to include in your response.  Here’s what the buyer is looking for:

  • Business details
  • Service definitions
  • Pricing
  • Service modifications
  • Governance
  • Date and signature

5 things to consider

Now we can look at what you need to remember when it comes to bidding for HVAC service contracts. Here are 5 things to consider when bidding for HVAC contracts:

Certifications

The first point of contact you make with the buyer will be the bid. Demonstrate as many signs of credibility as possible. List all the certifications and accreditations you have gained. The more qualifications you have, the more reputable and experienced you will appear to the buyer.

Time management

 There are many deadlines throughout the duration of the tendering process. Be sure to note down deadline date or stay updated for any changes. It may affect your timings, register for notifications so you be alerted of any changes. Submitting your response or turning up to any pre-bid meetings late doesn’t look good for you. It will give the impression that you’re lazy and unprofessional and could cost you the bid.

Pricing

When it comes to pricing, you’ll need to figure to figure the following:

  • What materials will you need?
  • How long will it take to install and test the equipment?
  • Will you need to obtain any permits?
  • Will you need to meet any building inspectors at the site?

All these factors will contribute what you are planning to charge for your services. Remember, if you price too low, the buyer may question your legitimacy. Being the lowest bidder doesn’t always win you the contracts. However, if you price too high, the buyer will just opt for a cheaper bidder. Price your services just right.

Create added value

There are going to be a lot of people bidding for the same contract. Show the buyer what you can bring to the table that your competitors can’t. Make your response stand out and demonstrate why you’re the best for the job.

Your response should provide social value. This is how your service can ehance the community you’re working in such as:

  • Creating new jobs and promoting skills;
  • Encouraging economic growth;
  • Supporting COVID-19 recovery;
  • Tackling climate change, and;

Submitting the bid

The final thing to consider when it comes to how to bid for HVAC service contracts is submitting it. Be sure to follow any submission guidelines the buyer has listed. If you ignore the buyer’s instructions, you may lose marks or have your bid disqualified.

 Below are some HVAC services tenders sourced on our portal:

200048 – 031 Replacement HVAC – Expressions of Interest

Public Health England – South West – Budget: Undisclosed

COVID 19 MITIGATION FOR THE HEATING VENTILATION AND AIR CONDITIONING (HVAC) AT HQ, SAFESIDE AND HAYMIILS FIRE STATION

West Midlands Fire and Rescue Authority – West Midlands Budget: £220k

GB-Eastbourne: HVAC Controls DGH Phase 2

East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust – South East Budget: £100k

GB-York: HVAC and Air Conditioning Planned Maintenance ITT

York St John University – Yorkshire and Humber Budget: £500k

HVAC Maintenance Services

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine – London Budget: £750k

Where to find HVAC Service Contracts?

A subscription to Facilities Tenders offers your business:

  • Access to all exclusive, public and private sector opportunities within the facilities management industry.
  • An on-hand Account Manager is available to answer any questions you may have about HVAC tenders. They can help you understand the procurement process and answer any questions you have about the tendering process in general.
  • A daily email bulletin sent straight to your inbox when new, sector-specific opportunities are uploaded.
  • Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
  • 20-minutes of free consultancy with one of our Bid Consultants each month.

We also track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

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

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite allows you to identify tender opportunities – even when you’re busy. Our two upgraded packages can improve your competitor awareness and bidding success rate. Each can help save you even more time when searching for utilities tenders.

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Facilities and Logistics, for example.
  • A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
  • Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid strategy.
  • Weekly phone calls with your Account Manager to discuss viable tendering opportunities

Contact us for further help and support for growing your business.

Need assistance with how to bid for HVAC service contracts?

You may not have the time or resources in house to write a winning tender response in house. Outsourcing to tender writing specialists can help you secure your next contract.

Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, provide four levels of bid writing support services. Our Bid Writers have over 60 years of collective bid writing experience and an 87% success rate. Whether you’re new to tendering or need your response proofread – we can help.

Tender Ready

Tender Ready is the perfect programme for those who are completely new to tendering. You’ll have access to an expert Bid Consultant to answer any questions that you may have. You’ll also get a year’s subscription to our Logistics Tenders portal.

Tender Improvement

If you have already been applying for tenders but aren’t seeing success our Tender Improvement package can help. Our Bid Writers will go over your previous submissions and provide feedback and guidance.

Tender Writing

Have you found the perfect courier delivery contract for your business but are struggling to start? Send it over to our Bid Writing team and they can write the whole response for you. If you use our Tender Writing service, they’ll even submit it on your behalf!

Tender Mentor  

Our Bid Writers can look over a bid response you’ve already written, checking it for errors before you submit. Sometimes you just need another pair of eyes to go over your response and our Tender Mentor service can help.

10 Things to Expect from Fire Alarm Maintenance Tenders

Fire alarm maintenance tenders and how to succeed

Fire alarm maintenance tenders are constantly being released by buyers in both the private and public sectors. Due to health and safety requirements, every building must have a fire detection system installed. This means that fire alarm maintenance services are needed across the board in residential, commercial and industrial buildings.

Fire alarm maintenance tenders can be used by contractors to procure fire alarm, fire systems and fire protection devices for:

  • Service
  • Testing
  • Inspection
  • Installation
  • Repair
  • Replacement
  • Maintenance.

Tenders are typically split into two sections: quality and price. The quality criteria are often split into different sections that are evaluated.

10 things you can expect from fire alarm maintenance tenders

  1. Providing your organisation’s information

You will always need to detail your organisation and contact details at the first stage of fire alarm maintenance tenders. You can expect to include your company’s registration and VAT number as well as contact details.

  1. Mobilisation plan

For this section, you can expect to detail how your organisation would achieve mobilisation in time for the commencement date. You will likely need to include how your organisation will manage any transition period if applicable during the contract. 

  1. The technical ability of staff

You can expect to detail the technical ability of your staff and the management structure you have in place. This may include staff CV’s or detailing their professional accreditations and qualifications. You may need to detail the reporting lines within your organisation to support the successful performance of the contract.

  1. Training

Buyers for fire alarm maintenance tenders may want you to describe your company’s approach to staff training. This is because they want to know that they are up to date with all requirements and demonstrate best practice.

  1. Service levels and performance

A common section within fire alarm maintenance tenders is service levels and performance. This will likely include how you would ensure emergency call out times are managed and adhered to.

Moreover, a contractor may require you to demonstrate an efficient and fully auditable process for detailing the work. You may need to include the entire work order process from ordering through to invoicing. This will likely include work order, quotations and invoicing.

  1. Contract monitoring

Contract monitoring is another section that you can expect to find within your fire alarm maintenance tender. You will likely need to provide and demonstrate your business’ standard reports you would propose to the buyer using. This covers areas such as health and safety incidents, Key Performance Indicators and jobs and service delivery.

  1. Health and safety

Of course, health and safety are to be expected in almost every tender. In this section, you will need to detail that you hold a recognised health and safety management system. For example, OHSAS 18001, ISO 45001 or equivalent, providing a copy to the buyer. Along with health and safety, you can expect to detail your risk assessments too.

  1. Environmental management and added value

Environmental management and added value are an increasingly important section of a bid. If tendering in the public sector, you can expect a minimum 10% weighting on social value. This means that you must detail the social, economic and environmental aspects when fulfilling a contract. These promises are contractually obliging, so you want to ensure you’re making promises you can keep. These could range from:

  • Aiding COVID-19 recovery
  • Paying staff National Living Wage to tackle economic inequality
  • Employing local labour or appointing apprentices to tackle unemployment
  • Tackling carbon emissions
  • Reducing waste
  • Equal opportunity and diversity policies.

You could include a copy of your environmental management systems certificate such as ISO 14001 or equivalent. Moreover, a buyer is looking at how a potential supplier can bring added value to the contract. This could include the integration of new technology, the use of local labour force and so on.

  1. References

References will be required when writing your fire alarm maintenance tender. These are often referred to as case studies. You can be asked to provide up to three past case studies within the last three to five years. These previous contracts could be from either or both the public and private sector.

You should keep your case studies relevant to the project at hand. You should choose examples that are similar in scope, complexity and location where possible. The case studies should demonstrate your company’s technical capability in the market.

  1. Financial standing

Your business’s economic financial standing will be assessed when you’re applying for tenders. It is often assessed as pass or fail and is assessed on three aspects of your business:

  • Annual turnover
  • Financial ratios
  • Insurance.

Need assistance when writing your next fire alarm maintenance tender?

We know how busy you are when running your own business. Buyer will always expect and look for a high-quality written response when they release a tender. Sometimes you just don’t have the time or resources in house to write a winning response. Outsourcing your next bid to tender writing experts can help you secure a pipeline of work for your business.

Our sister company Hudson Succeed, have over 60 years of bid writing experience and an 87% success rate. They offer four bid writing support services that can help you win more fire alarm maintenance tenders. Whether you’ve never tendered before or need your response proofread before you submit – we can help.

Tender Writing

Once you’ve found the perfect tender for your business, why not send it over to us? Our Bid Writers can take care of it all for you. They’ll let you know what they need from you, providing you with a full Tender Writing breakdown. They’ll even submit it on your behalf.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready programme is perfect for those who have never tendered before. A Bid Writer will work with you to make sure you have everything you need in place to tender successfully. The 4-week programme offers your business:

  • A 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders
  • Access to Global Bid Directors and Senior Bidding professionals
  • An organisation-wide Bid Library, including 3 case studies, 5 CV’s and 8 policies
  • Additional flexible benefit options.

Tender Improvement

If you’ve been tendering but aren’t seeing the results you want, our Tender Improvement package can help. The Bid Team will assess your previous responses and tender documents, working with you to improve for future submissions. This package includes a 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders and additional tendering development services.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written your tender response and need someone to double-check it for errors, Tender Mentor can help. Our Bid Team will proofread your work for any inconsistencies, grammar or spelling mistakes. They’ll also ensure that it’s in line with the specification before you submit it.

Where can I find fire alarm maintenance tenders for my business?

Knowing where to find fire alarm maintenance tenders can take a lot of time out of your day. There are hundreds of websites posting multi-sector opportunities. Each requiring their own portals, logins and passwords – keeping track can turn into a full-time job! Luckily for you, we have a solution.

Enter…Facilities Tenders!

Facilities Tenders is one, easy-to-navigate portal that hosts all facilities management tendering leads and opportunities. Gone are the days of relying on inaccurate CPV codes that can result in missed opportunities. Our Opportunity Trackers manually source and upload tenders from hundreds of websites.

You’re able to search all exclusive, public and private sector opportunities from across the UK. You are able to filter the results by keyword, location, budget and more. This allows you to find the perfect fire alarm maintenance tenders for your company, streamlining the process.

Below are previous fire alarm maintenance tenders sourced on our portal:

Fire Systems Maintenance Services

London Borough of Bromley- London- Budget: £540,000

Fire Safety Maintenance Contract

Almond Housing Association- Scotland- Budget: £90,000

Fire Safety & Maintenance 2021

Irwell Valley Homes- North West- Budget: £125,000

GB-St Leonards on Sea: Fire Alarm Maintenance

East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust- South East- Budget: £50,000

Oldbury Fire Systems Maintenance Reference number: MX-OLD-FIRE2021

Sellafield- West Midlands- Budget: Undisclosed

A subscription to Facilities Tenders offers your business:

  • Access to all exclusive, public and private sector opportunities within the facilities management industry.
  • An on-hand Account Manager is available to answer any questions you may have about fire alarm maintenance tenders. They can help you understand the procurement process and answer any questions you have about the tendering process in general.
  • A daily email bulletin sent straight to your inbox when new, sector-specific opportunities are uploaded.
  • Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
  • 20-minutes of free consultancy with one of our Bid Consultants each month.

We also track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

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

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite allows you to identify tender opportunities – even when you’re busy. Our two upgraded packages can improve your competitor awareness and bidding success rate. Each can help save you even more time when searching for fire alarm maintenance tenders.

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Facilities and Logistics, for example.
  • A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
  • Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid strategy.
  • Weekly phone calls with your Account Manager to discuss viable tendering opportunities.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package offers your business:

  • All of the above.
  • Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
  • Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business grow.

A Guide to The Utilities Procurement Regulations

Utilities Procurement Regulations: answering your FAQs

Utilities Procurement Regulations are also known as the Utilities Contracts Regulations or UCRs. They are the principal procurement rules governing utilities in the UK. The regulations were created in order to help ensure general principles of transparency in the procurement process for utilities.

They’re used to establish equal treatment and non-discrimination ensuring that all tenders are assessed creating a fair and competitive process. UCRs create a more level playing field, allowing SMEs to get involved in tendering in the public sector. The Government have pledged to spend £1 in every £3 with SMEs by 2022. This means the public sector is actively looking to work with smaller businesses.

There are two sets of Utilities Procurement Regulations for the UK these are as follows:

  • In England, Wales and Northern Ireland: The Utilities Contracts Regulations 2016
  • In Scotland: The Utilities Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2016

When are UCRs used?

Utilities Procurement Regulations apply where the following three conditions are satisfied when the:

  1. Entity awarding the contract is a ‘utility’
  2. Contract is for works, services or suppliers associated with a prescribed relevant utility activity
  3. Estimated value of the contract exceeds the relevant financial thresholds.

What entities are covered by the UCRs?

The entities that are covered by the Utilities Procurement Regulations are defined as ‘utilities’ and must be:

  • Contracting authorities

Including public bodies tasked with performing public functions such as local authorities.

  • Public undertakings

Over which contracting authorities may directly or indirectly exercise a dominant influence. They could do this by virtue of their ownership or financial participation or governing rules.

  • Private undertakings operating on the basis of ‘special or exclusive rights’

Deriving from authorisations granted by the State. For example, authorisations or licences to operate a gas or water network.

Utility activities in the UK are contained in the UCRs. They can be summarised as covering:

  • Regulated water and sewerage companies
  • Incumbent gas and electricity transmission and distribution network businesses
  • District heating networks
  • Transport services
  • Ports and airports
  • Postal services.

What contracts are covered by the Utilities Procurement Regulations?

The UCRs apply to the following contracts:

What’s the difference between UCRs and public sector regulations?

The contracts that the regulations apply to are fairly similar to the public sector regulations (PCR) 2015. The Utilities Procurement Regulations provide greater flexibility for utilities being more market-orientated. Therefore, they’re less likely to be influenced by ‘buy national’ circumstance when procuring works, supplies and services.

The UCRs only apply to the award of works, supplies and service contracts relating to the relevant utility activity. They allow utilities to choose freely between prescribed contract award procedures. Moreover, they give utilities greater freedom to use framework agreements now they have become more regulated. The PCRs stipulate that there’s a four-year maximum term for a framework. Whereas under the UCRs, a utilities framework can have a maximum of eight years.

What is a framework?

A framework agreement is a multi-supplier agreement used by the public sector to procure a range of goods and services. They are frequently used within the utilities sector. The length of a framework can vary from a few months, but utilities frameworks more often run for years. Due to this, securing a place on a framework agreement can be a lucrative opportunity for your business.

Framework agreements are split into different lots. Each lot can either be a specific good, service, work or geographical location. They allow suppliers to apply to be part of a wider contract without needing to supply all areas. The number of suppliers for each lot varies and can be anything from four suppliers for one lot to ten. Suppliers need only apply for the specific lot[s] they specialise in.

Depending on the buyer, suppliers may be able to bid on any or all of the framework lots available. This will be stated within the tender documents and tender specification released by the buyer. If this is an option, a supplier must be able to demonstrate that they’re able to undertake all works. They must have the appropriate capacity and resources to undertake the works across all selected respective lots.

What are the tender award procedures?

Utilities Procurement Regulations provide for six main contract awards tender procedures:

  1. Open procedure
  2. Restricted procedure
  3. Competitive procedure with negotiation
  4. Competitive dialogue procedure
  5. Innovation partnership
  6. Negotiated procedure without a call for competition.

How are utilities contracts awarded?

Under the Utilities Procurement Regulations, all contracts must now be awarded to the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT). A MEAT takes on a cost-effectiveness approach and could be based on price or cost alone. It could also be evaluated by a best price-quality ratio.

A MEAT can consider the following aspects of a tender:

  • Accessibility
  • Customer service
  • Sustainability
  • Environmental aspects
  • Ability to deliver on time
  • Price
  • Quality.

Need help with your next utilities tender?

You may not always have the experience, time or resources in-house to write a winning tender response. If you’re interested in a current framework agreement or utilities DPS but don’t know where to start, we can help. Outsourcing to tender writing experts can help you win your next tender, securing a pipeline of work for your business.

Our sister company Hudson Succeed, have over 60 years of bid writing experience and an 87% success rate. They offer four bid writing support services that can help you win more utilities tenders. Whether you’ve never tendered before or need your response proofread before you submit – we can help.

Tender Writing

Once you’ve found the perfect utilities tender for your business, why not send it over to us? Our Bid Writers can take care of it all for you. They’ll let you know what they need from you, providing you with a full Tender Writing breakdown. They’ll even submit it on your behalf.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready programme is perfect for those who have never tendered before. A Bid Writer will work with you to make sure you have everything you need in place to tender successfully. The 4-week programme offers your business:

  • A 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders
  • Access to Global Bid Directors and Senior Bidding professionals
  • An organisation-wide Bid Library, including 3 case studies, 5 CV’s and 8 policies
  • Additional flexible benefit options.

Tender Improvement

If you’ve been tendering but aren’t seeing the results you want, our Tender Improvement package can help. The Bid Team will assess your previous responses and tender documents, working with you to improve for future submissions. This package includes a 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders and additional tendering development services.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written your own tender response and need someone to double-check it for errors, Tender Mentor can help. Our Bid Team will proofread your work for any inconsistencies, grammar or spelling mistakes. They’ll also ensure that it’s in line with the specification before you submit.

Below are previous utilities tenders sourced on our portal:

Utilities Framework

Exceeding Limited- East Midlands- Budget: £1,500,000

Market Engagement Event in relation to LB Hackney’s Zero Carbon Electricity Power Purchase Agreement(s)

London Borough of Hackney- London- Budget: Undisclosed

Supply of Electric/Gas Meter Covers

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council- West Midlands- Budget: Undisclosed

Contract for the Provision of a Fully Managed Service for Energy Supply (Gas and Electric)

Cheshire East Borough Council- North West- Budget: £6,000,000

Plot N24 Electricity Installation (Hereford Enterprise Zone)

Herefordshire Council- West Midlands- Budget: Undisclosed

A subscription to Facilities Tenders offers your business:

  • Access to all exclusive, public and private sector opportunities within the facilities management industry.
  • An on-hand Account Manager is available to answer any questions you may have about utilities tenders. They can help you understand the procurement process and answer any questions you have about the tendering process in general.
  • A daily email bulletin sent straight to your inbox when new, sector-specific opportunities are uploaded.
  • Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
  • 20-minutes of free consultancy with one of our Bid Consultants each month.

We also track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

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

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite allows you to identify tender opportunities – even when you’re busy. Our two upgraded packages can improve your competitor awareness and bidding success rate. Each can help save you even more time when searching for utilities tenders.

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Facilities and Logistics, for example.
  • A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
  • Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid strategy.
  • Weekly phone calls with your Account Manager to discuss viable tendering opportunities.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package offers your business:

  • All of the above.
  • Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
  • Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business grow.

How to Prepare for Energy Tenders in the UK

Energy tenders in the UK and where to find them

Searching for energy tenders in the UK can be overwhelming. Hundreds of websites post multi-sector opportunities daily and it can be hard to know where to begin.

Energy tenders in the UK can vary from renewable energy to energy efficiency contracts. Both the private and public sectors release energy tenders and they can be lucrative opportunities for your business.

Where to find energy tenders in the UK

Half the challenge of tendering is knowing where to find the right opportunity for your business. It can seem daunting and end up turning into a full-time job. Multiple websites ask for different logins and passwords, it can be hard to keep track. Ideally, you should be looking for a sector-specific portal that posts relevant exclusive, public and private tenders and leads.

Facilities Tenders is a centralised portal that hosts all the UK’s facilities management tendering leads and opportunities. Gone are the days of relying on inaccurate CPV codes that can result in missed opportunities. Our Opportunity Trackers manually source and upload relevant facilities management tenders daily from across the UK. You’re able to filter the results by location, budget, keyword and more. This allows you to find the perfect energy tenders in the UK for your company.

Below are previous energy tenders we sourced on our portal:

S/M Agreement for Building Management Equipment Services

Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust- Yorkshire and Humber- Budget: Undisclosed

Jigsaw Homes Group Energy Tender 2021

Jigsaw Homes Group Ltd- North West- Budget: £3,000,000

Zero Carbon Electricity Power Purchase Agreement

London Borough of Hackney- London- Budget: Undisclosed

PS-21-13 – Dunlop ECC – Passivhaus (Energy Efficiency) New Build Project (PRJ0012653)

East Ayrshire Council- Scotland- Budget: £2,050,000

Energy Efficiency Retrofit Project Market Engagement

Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority- Eastern- Budget: Undisclosed

A subscription to Facilities Tenders offers your business:

  • Access to all exclusive, public and private sector opportunities within the facilities management industry.
  • An on-hand Account Manager is available to answer any questions you may have about energy tenders in the UK. They can help you understand the procurement process and answer any questions you have about the tendering process in general.
  • A daily email bulletin sent straight to your inbox when new, sector-specific opportunities are uploaded.
  • Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
  • 20-minutes of free consultancy with one of our Bid Consultants each month.

We also track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

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

Once you’ve found a site that posts sector-specific opportunities, you may be wondering what’s needed. It’s important to develop a bank of responses ready to submit when the time comes. Writing a tender can take time, you will need to provide company information. A buyer will often ask for your business’s policies on a range of areas such as:

  • Health and safety
  • Modern slavery
  • Equality and diversity
  • Environmental.

Question if the opportunity is right for your business

Before you get underway with any bid, you should ask yourself the following questions:

  • Can I deliver the contract if successful?
  • Do I meet the minimum financial and eligibility criteria?
  • Can I write a high quality, winning response?
  • Do I have the required experience?

You should be answering yes to all the above questions when looking for the right energy tenders for your business. These are essential in order to be in a chance of winning a contract.

Know your businesses economic and financial standing

When submitting a tender response, you will be asked to provide your economic financial standing. This generally covers your business’s:

  1. Annual turnover
  2. Financial ratios
  3. Insurance[s].

Have a bank of case studies demonstrating past contracts

Requirements for energy tenders in the UK could include previous contract examples of work you have completed. They should be similar in complexity, scope and style. You may be asked for up to three examples within the last five years. They are often referred to as case studies and can strengthen your bid. Make sure you keep them relevant and include any challenges you overcame.

Your case studies should demonstrate:

  • Previous contracts similar in scale and location
  • How you delivered the contract and mobilisation
  • Any challenges you encountered and how you overcame them
  • Whether you completed the contract on time and within budget.

CVs of the team members expected to work on the contract

Energy tenders in the UK may ask for you to attach CVs of team members expected to work on site. They should detail their:

  • Name
  • Job title
  • Experience
  • Knowledge
  • Technical skills
  • Relevant qualifications and accreditations.

You need to instil confidence in the client that your team knows what they’re doing. You should demonstrate that they will deliver the project successfully. It will never go amiss attaching a small, friendly and professional-looking picture of each team member. This enables the buyer to put a name to a face that they will potentially be working with on site.

Be prepared to answer a question on social value if tendering in the public sector

Public sector contracts have a mandatory 10% minimum weighting on social value for each tender. This is because they need to ensure value for money when spending taxpayer’s money. It’s also because they have pledged to commit to more sustainable procurement practices.

A winning tender will need to assess the various social, economic and environmental aspects while carrying out the tender. These could include:

  • COVID-19 recovery
  • Paying employees National Living Wage to tackle economic inequality
  • Using local labour to tackle unemployment
  • The environmental consideration taken, such as reducing waste and encouraging recycling
  • Steps taken to reduce carbon emissions
  • Upskilling and use of apprentices and more.

The pledges you make at this stage are often contractually binding. This means you should be making promises you can and will keep. It is not something to just gloss over within your tender response.

Need assistance when writing energy tenders?

You may not have the time, resources or experience to write a winning bid response in house. Writing energy tenders in the UK can take a large amount of time out of your day. If you are unsure if you can write a high-quality written response to the bid, outsourcing is a great option.

Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, have an 87% success rate and over 60 years of collective bid writing experience. They offer four levels of bid writing support to help you win energy tenders in the UK. Whether you’re completely new to tendering or you need your response proofread before you submit – we can help.

Tender Writing

Once you’ve found the perfect energy tender for your business, why not send it over to us? Our Bid Writers can take care of it all for you. They’ll let you know what they need from you, providing you with a full Tender Writing breakdown. They’ll even submit it on your behalf.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready programme is perfect for those who have never tendered before. A Bid Writer will work with you to make sure you have everything you need in place to tender successfully. The 4-week programme offers your business:

  • A 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders
  • Access to Global Bid Directors and Senior Bidding professionals
  • An organisation-wide Bid Library, including 3 case studies, 5 CV’s and 8 policies
  • Additional flexible benefit options.

Tender Improvement

If you’ve been tendering but aren’t seeing the results you want, our Tender Improvement package can help. The Bid Team will assess your previous responses and tender documents, working with you to improve for future submissions. This package includes a 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders and additional tendering development services.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written your own tender response and need someone to double-check it for errors, Tender Mentor can help. Our Bid Team will proofread your work for any inconsistencies, grammar or spelling mistakes. They’ll also ensure that it’s in line with the specification before you submit.

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite can help optimise your tendering opportunities – even when you’re busy! Our two upgraded packages can improve your bidding success rate and competitor awareness. Each package is a time-saving tool that can help your business when searching for energy tenders in the UK.

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option best suits a business that overlaps two industries such as Facilities and Logistics.
  • A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
  • Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Buyer portal management including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid strategy.
  • Weekly phone calls with your on-hand Account Manager to discuss viable tendering opportunities.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package includes:

  • All of the above.
  • Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
  • Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business grow.

How to Win Lawn Care Contracts up for Bid

Lawn care contracts up for bid: 3 steps to success

Have you been searching terms such as “how to win lawn care contracts up for bid?” Or “where to find lawn care contracts up for bid?” You aren’t the only one. Tendering for work can have many advantages for your business. There’s never been a better time to give it a go, particularly if you’re an SME. However, knowing how to win and where to find lawn care contracts up for bid can be daunting.

Before applying for any bid, you should consider the following questions after reading the tender specification:

  • Can I fulfil the work?
  • Do I hold and meet the necessary requirements?
  • Do I have enough experience?
  • Does my business meet the economic and financial standing?
  • Do I have the resources to carry out the contract?

These questions are a good place to start before beginning any bid response. They can help you establish if it’s the right opportunity for your business. You don’t want to waste resources starting a bid only to realise you don’t qualify on financial standing, for example.

Opportunities for SME’s

If you’re an SME, you may be wondering if you are in with a chance of winning lawn care contracts up for bid. A lot of SMEs think that tenders are given to larger businesses and corporations exclusively. However, this isn’t the case.

The UK government has implemented a scheme to see at least £1 in £3 being spent with SMEs by 2022. This means that public sector organisations are actively looking to award contracts to smaller businesses. Winning a contract, particularly if it’s a place on a framework agreement can be a lucrative opportunity for your business.

So, if you’ve never tendered before you may be wondering how to go about it. Generally speaking, there are three steps to winning lawn care contracts that come up for bid:

  1. Knowing where to find lawn care contracts up for bid.
  2. Competitively pricing your services.
  3. Knowing how to write a high-quality bid response.

Let’s break these down.

Step 1: Where to find lawn care contracts up for bid

You may be wondering where you can find lawn contracts up for bid. There are hundreds of websites posting multi-sector tendering opportunities daily across the UK. Each may require a different login or password and keeping track can turn into a full-time job! Both the private and public sector release tenders in order to procure lawn care services.

You should be looking for a site that hosts industry-specific opportunities. Facilities Tenders is a centralised portal that hosts all facilities management tendering leads and opportunities. Gone are the days of relying on inaccurate CPV codes that can result in missed opportunities.

Our Opportunity Trackers manually source and upload exclusive, public and private sector opportunities from across the UK. You’re able to filter the results by keyword, location, budget and more. This allows you to find the perfect lawn care contracts up for bid for your company.

Below are previous lawn care contracts up for bid on our portal:

Provision of Weed Control Services

The London Borough of Barnet- London- Budget: Undisclosed

Landscaping and Grounds Maintenance – V2

Taff Housing Association- Wales- Budget: Undisclosed

Scottish Ambulance Service Grounds Maintenance

Scottish Ambulance Service- Scotland- Budget: Undisclosed

Framework – Provision of Garden Maintenance and Hedge Trimming Services – MTS

East Renfrewshire Council- Scotland- Budget: £105,000

Grounds Maintenance Services – North West Region

Salvation Army Housing Association- London- Budget: Undisclosed

A subscription to Facilities Tenders offers your business:

  • Access to all exclusive, public and private sector opportunities within the facilities management industry.
  • An on-hand Account Manager is available to answer any questions you may have about lawn care contracts up for bid. They can help you understand the procurement process and answer any questions you have about the tendering process in general.
  • A daily email bulletin sent straight to your inbox when new, sector-specific opportunities are uploaded.
  • Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
  • 20-minutes of free consultancy with one of our Bid Consultants each month.

We also track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

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

Step 2: Pricing your tender right

Pricing your bid right is an important aspect of any tender. You don’t want to undercut your competitors. Moreover, pricing your services too low may lead to a contractor questioning the legitimacy of your services.

The public sector has certain rules and regulations that it must follow to award a contract to a supplier. However, the private sector isn’t bound by such rules and can award a tender however they want. In this case, the cheapest bid may well win, but for the public sector, it won’t. Public sector organisations will award bids to the most economically advantageous tender, known as the MEAT.

The MEAT seeks to achieve the most value for money and added value from a bid proposal. This is because they need to ensure they are getting the most value for money out of the taxpayer’s money. A buyer will take into account a range of factors that will be specified in the tender documents. They’ll evaluate them both individually and in combination. They might include the following:

  • Accessibility
  • Technical ability
  • Ability to deliver on time
  • Innovation
  • Environmental considerations
  • Sustainability.

When applying for lawn care contracts up for bid in the public sector you need to consider social value. A tender will have a minimum weighting of 10% on social value, this could be more depending on the buyer. You will need to consider the environmental, social and economic aspects of the contract. Make sure you’re including promises you can keep, as social value is often contractually binding. It’s likely that lawn care contracts up for bid will have a particular focus on environmental aspects and considerations.

Examples of social values you could include in your lawn care contracts up for bid are:

  • COVID-19 recovery
  • Reducing waste and encouraging recycling
  • The eco-friendly and innovative products you use
  • Encouraging biodiversity and tackling carbon emissions
  • Upskilling
  • Paying staff the National Living Wage to tackle economic inequality
  • Equal opportunity and diversity policies
  • Apprenticeships or employing local labour to tackle unemployment. 

Step 3: Write a high-quality response

Buyers will be expecting a high-quality written bid response. Even if the quality section of the tender is weighted less than cost. A business should aim to score as highly as possible across all aspects of the tender evaluation sections. You should aim for your responses to be clear and concise. Ultimately you want to be assertive in your writing, persuading the buyer that you’re the best business for the job.

Try and hit as close to the word or page count as possible with your written response. The word count will be detailed in the questions. If a buyer is expecting a 500-word response, simply responding with two sentences won’t suffice. Word and page counts are there for a reason. Clearly laying out your response will reflect strongly on you as a business. Using subheadings and bullet points can help break up your responses. A buyer will apricate this, particularly if there’s a high level of responders.

Pro-tip: Have a bank of evidence of previous contracts you have fulfilled. Buyers will ask for two to three case studies of completed contracts within the last three or five years. They should be similar in scope and complexity to the lawn care contracts that you’re applying for. You should consider:

  • Past contracts you have completed similar in scale and location.
  • How you mobilised and delivered the contract.
  • The challenges you encountered and how you overcame them.
  • Whether you completed the contract on time and within budget.

Need assistance when writing your next lawn care contract?

It’s understandable that you may not always have the resources, time or experience to write a winning response in-house. Outsourcing to bid writing experts can help you win your next tender, securing a pipeline of work for your business.

Our sister company Hudson Succeed, have over 60 years of bid writing experience and an 87% success rate. They offer four bid writing support services that can help you win more lawn care contracts up for bid. Whether you’ve never tendered before or need your response proofread before you submit – we can help.

  1. Tender Ready programme
  2. The Tender Improvement package
  3. Tender Writing services
  4. Tender Mentor

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite allows you to identify tender opportunities – even when you’re busy. Our two upgraded packages can improve your competitor awareness and bidding success rate. Each can help save you even more time when searching for lawn care contracts up for bid.

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Facilities and Logistics, for example.
  • A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
  • Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid strategy.
  • Weekly phone calls with your Account Manager to discuss viable tendering opportunities.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package offers your business:

  • All of the above.
  • Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
  • Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business grow.

Asbestos Tender Opportunities: 5 Things to Expect

Asbestos tender opportunities and where to find them

Asbestos tender opportunities are fairly common within the facilities industry. They are released by both the public and private sector. Although, you can expect to see more asbestos tender opportunities released by public sector organisations, such as local councils. They are used to procure services and works in relation to asbestos.

You may be able to find asbestos tender opportunities for:

  • Surveying, sampling and analytical services
  • Removal
  • Testing and consultancy
  • Asbestos management services.

Asbestos was used in building works from the 20th Century, with the peak usage in the 60s and 70s. There is an array of buildings that now need it removed or tested after its ban in the 1980s. These may include:

  • Offices
  • Educational premises
  • Leisure centres
  • Social housing
  • Community centre
  • Shop units
  • Depots
  • Residential homes.

5 Things you can expect from asbestos tender opportunities

  1. Framework Agreements

A framework agreement is a multi-supplier agreement used by public sector organisations. They are used by a buyer to secure multiple suppliers for particular services, goods and works. They’re also used by buyers if there is a contract with multiple locations.

The length of framework agreements can range from a few months to multiple years at a time. Some offer the possibility of an extension and securing a place can be a lucrative opportunity for your business. They are a great way of securing a pipeline of work for your company.

They are split into lots and each lot is a specific good, service or location. It allows suppliers to tender for work applying for the certain lot[s] they can deliver. This means a supplier doesn’t have to be able to provide the whole contract. Depending on the buyer, and the framework, a supplier may be able to apply for multiple lots. In this case, a supplier will have to provide hard evidential proof they have the resources to deliver multiple lots.

Below is an example of an asbestos tender framework agreement broken into locational lots:

Lot 1 – Birmingham City Council

Lot 2 – Wolverhampton City Council

Lot 3 – Coventry City Council

Lot 4 – Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council

Lot 5 – Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council

If you were only able to provide your services to the Solihull area, you would only apply for Lot 5.

  1. A method statement

You will likely be asked to provide a method statement when applying for asbestos tender opportunities. An example question that may be asked is:

“Please provide a method statement from an operational perspective detailing how the project works will be undertaken in an occupied building, where you perceive the key risks are in operating in an occupied building and how you proposed to mitigate these risks (your answer should be limited to 500 words).”

For this, you could include a step-by-step guide detailing how you would deliver the work at hand. A focus on carrying out the works safely is crucial. Including how employees carry out work in a safe manner to prevent injury to themselves or others is also vital. Typically, a method statement will include how your business handles the following:

  • First aid
  • PPE
  • Welfare
  • Staff and training
  • Tools and equipment
  • Material handling.
  1. Proof of relevant qualifications and accreditations

When writing your proposal for asbestos tender opportunities, you can expect to provide evidence of your technical capability. Buyers will likely ask what relevant qualifications, accreditations and licences your business and employees have. These could be:

  • ISO 9001; 14001
  • OHAS 18001
  • EMAS
  • RIDDOR
  • CHAS
  • Asbestos Removal Licence
  • ConstructionLine certificate.

This is because they want to be reassured that your business upholds best practice.

  1. Value for money

Public sector contracts will be awarded to the most economically advantageous tender, which is known as the MEAT. They want to be assured that taxpayer’s money is spent on tenders that present the most value for money. Buyers will be looking at more than just price. They will be looking at aspects of your tender response individually and combined.

Each buyer has different needs and requirements. The tender specification will detail what aspects the buyer will be evaluating the tender on. It could include the following:

  • Innovation
  • Environmental aspects
  • Ability to deliver on time
  • Technical ability
  • Quality
  • Sustainability.
  1. Social value

Asbestos tenders in the public sector will have an evaluated section on social value. The minimum weighting is 10%, but it can be as large as 30%. Social value covers the social, economic and environmental aspects of a contract. You should be making pledges that you can keep in your tender response. This is because they are likely to be contractually binding. Therefore, it is something that you should carefully consider.

Due to the nature of asbestos, it’s likely that there’ll be an emphasis on the environmental aspects of a contract. Social value considerations you could include in your response could be:

  • COVID-19 recovery
  • Supporting the local community through employment of local labour
  • Reducing waste
  • Paying National Living Wage
  • The sustainable and environmental practices you implement
  • Equality and diversity policies
  • Apprenticeship training.

Need help writing your next asbestos tender proposal?

You may not have the time or the resources to write a winning response for asbestos tenders in-house. It can take hours out of your day, and some questions can be confusing if you’ve never tendered before. Outsourcing to a bid writing company can help take the headache out of tendering, maximising your chances of success.

Our sister company Hudson Succeed, are experts in tender responses. They have over 60 years of bid writing experience and an 87% success rate. They offer four bid writing support services that can help you win more asbestos tender opportunities. Whether you’re completely new to tendering or need a response proofread before you submit – they can help.

Tender Writing

Once you’ve found the perfect asbestos tender opportunity for your business, send it our way. Our Bid Writers can take care of it all for you and they’ll even submit it on your behalf. They’ll let you know what they need from you, providing you with a full Tender Writing breakdown.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready 4-week programme is perfect for those who have never tendered before. A Bid Writer will work with you to make sure you have everything you need in place to tender successfully. The Tender Ready programme offers your business:

  • A 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders
  • Access to Global Bid Directors and Senior Bidding professionals
  • An organisation-wide Bid Library, including 3 case studies, 5 CV’s and 8 policies
  • Additional flexible benefit options.

Tender Improvement

Tender Improvement can help if you aren’t seeing the desired results from your current tendering efforts. The Bid Team will assess your previous responses and tender documents, working with you to improve for future submissions. This package includes a 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders and additional tendering development services.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written your own tender response and need someone to double-check it for errors, Tender Mentor can help. Our Bid Team will proofread your work for any inconsistencies, grammar or spelling mistakes. They’ll also ensure that it’s in line with the specification before you submit.

Where can I find asbestos tender opportunities?

Searching for the right tender for your company can take time. There are thousands of sites posting multi-industry opportunities that are updated daily. Each may require a different login, password or portal and it can be hard to keep up. Simply relying on CPV codes can result in missed opportunities. This is because they are often mislabelled, ironically, going against their very purpose.

Luckily for you, we have a solution. Facilities Tenders is a portal that hosts all live tendering opportunities within the facilities management industry. It’s a time-saving tool that can help optimise your search using one, easy-to-navigate centralised portal.

Our Opportunity Trackers source and upload exclusive, public and private sector tenders from across the UK. You’re able to filter and search the results by keyword, budget, location and more. This allows you to find the perfect asbestos tender opportunities for your business, streamlining the process.

Below are previous asbestos tender opportunities sourced on our portal:

Approved list for Asbestos Removal – Review

London Borough of Bexley- London- Budget: Undisclosed

Asbestos Management Services

Newport City Homes- Wales- Budget: £2,400,000

Asbestos Removal Services

B3 Living- Eastern- Budget: £500,000

Asbestos Removal to New Islington Mill

Salford City Council- North West- Budget: Undisclosed

Asbestos Testing & Consultancy Framework

Hampshire County Council- South East- Budget: £500,000

A 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders offers your business:

  • Access to all exclusive, public and private sector opportunities within the facilities management industry.
  • An on-hand Account Manager available to answer any questions you may have about finding asbestos tender opportunities. They can help you understand the procurement process and answer any questions you have about the tendering process in general.
  • A daily email bulletin sent straight to your inbox when new, sector-specific opportunities are uploaded.
  • Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
  • 20-minutes of free consultancy with one of our Bid Consultants each month.

We also track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

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

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite allows you to identify tendering opportunities even when you’re busy. Our two upgraded packages can improve your competitor awareness and bidding success rate. Each can help save you even more time when searching for asbestos tendering opportunities.

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

  • A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Facilities and Construction, for example.
  • Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid
  • Weekly phone calls with your dedicated Account Manager to discuss viable facilities tendering opportunities.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package also includes:

  • All of the above.
  • Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
  • Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business grow.

How to Bid on Landscaping Jobs

5 things you can expect when you bid on landscaping jobs

So, you may be wondering how to bid on landscaping jobs, and you aren’t alone. Bidding on landscaping jobs can have advantages and enable you to secure a pipeline of work for your business. Landscaping tenders may be commissioned by both public and private organisations such as councils, private residences, universities and enterprises.

Commissioners may release tenders for landscaping services that cover a range of work such as:

If you’ve never tendered before, you may be confused about where to begin. Procurement methods can vary, and different buyers will ask for different things depending on their needs. Below are five things you can expect to be asked for when you bid on a landscaping job.

  1. Health and safety policies

Health and safety is an important aspect of any tender, but particularly when operating equipment. Buyers want to be confident that your business works to the highest health and safety standards. You will also want to minimise the risk to your employees and the general public while carrying out a contract. In order to do this, you must exhibit best practice.

You may be asked to include a risk assessment in accordance with a copy of your health and safety policy. These could be:

  • CHAS
  • RIDDOR
  • A contingency plan that identifies and mitigates risks.
  1. Method statement

A method statement will usually be required when applying to bid on landscaping jobs. The statement will need to detail the way in which the tasks will be completed. It should include a step-by-step guide on how to carry out the job safely. It may also need to include what controlled measures have been implemented to mitigate risks. Stating how employees carry out work in a safe manner to prevent injury to themselves or others is also crucial.

Typically, a method statement will include how your company handles:

  • Staff and training
  • Material handling
  • Preparation and induction
  • Welfare
  • Tools and electrical equipment
  • A full list of machinery to be used on the contract
  • PPE
  • First aid.
  1. Site visits

It is likely that when you apply to bid on landscaping jobs you will be able to conduct a site visit. Depending on the buyer and the site, they may be optional or compulsory. However, it will be detailed within the tender documents. Site visits can be greatly beneficial to your bid response. They’re a great opportunity to go and see the proposed working environment for yourself.

It’s strongly advised that if there’s an option to conduct a site visit, that you participate. They allow you to gain an insight into the buyer, accessing information you otherwise wouldn’t be able to. It may even result in you being able to price your services more accurately.

  1. Relevant qualifications and accreditations

Buyers will often ask for you to attach relevant qualifications and accreditations for the job. This is because they want to be reassured that you have the ability and experience to undertake the work. Some relevant qualifications and accreditations may include:

  • ISO 9001; 14001; 18001
  • BALI (British Association of Landscape Industries)
  • RHS (Royal Horticulture Society) training
  • IoG (Institute of Groundsmanship)
  • Constructionline
  • SSIP.
  1. Social value

When tendering for public sector contracts, there will be a section on social value. This is because the government have made a compulsory minimum weighting of 10% of social value within tenders. However, depending on the buyer, the weighting can be as large as 30%. This means it’s not something to disregard. Buyers will be expecting you to keep the promises you make in your tender proposal.

Social value is the social, economic and environmental aspects that you will take into account while delivering a contract. Your response should include how your business is:

  • Supporting COVID-19 recovery
  • Creating equal opportunities within the workplace
  • Creating jobs or upskilling through apprenticeships for local labour
  • Tackling climate change and reducing waste.

Due to the nature of landscaping jobs, there’ll likely be an increased focus on the environmental aspects of the contract. Buyers will likely want to know how you will be:

  • Managing waste
  • Reducing consumption
  • Increasing recycling
  • Encouraging biodiversity.

We can help you win your next bid on landscaping jobs

You may not have the time, resources or experience to bid on landscaping jobs. Outsourcing your next tender to bid writing experts can help get you on the path to success. Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, have over 60 years of bid writing experience and an 87% success rate. They offer four bid writing support services that can help you land your next landscaping contract.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready programme is perfect for those who have never tendered before. Our Bid Writers will work with you to make sure you have everything you need in place to tender successfully. The 4-week programme offers your business:

  • A 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders
  • Access to Global Bid Directors and Senior Bidding professionals
  • An organisation-wide Bid Library, including 3 case studies, 5 CV’s and 8 policies
  • Additional flexible benefit options.

Tender Improvement

Our Tender Improvement package can help if you’ve been tendering for work but aren’t seeing results. The Bid Team will assess your previous responses and tender documents, working with you to improve for future submissions. This package includes a 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders and additional tendering development services.

Tender Writing

Once you’ve found the perfect landscaping bid for your company, why not send it to Hudson Succeed? Our Bid Writers can take care of it all for you. They’ll let you know what they need from you, providing you with a full Tender Writing breakdown. They’ll even submit it on your behalf.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written your own tender response and need someone to double-check it for errors, Tender Mentor can help. Our Bid Team will proofread your work for any inconsistencies, grammar or spelling mistakes. They’ll also ensure that it’s in line with the specification before you submit.

Where can I find landscaping jobs?

Now you know how to bid on landscaping jobs, you may be wondering where you can find them. There are thousands of websites across the UK that upload multi-industry opportunities. Each has a different portal, requires a different login or password, and can take hours out of your day.

Facilities Tenders is a time-saving tool that helps you optimise your search when you’re looking to bid on landscaping jobs.

We host all the live tendering opportunities within the facilities management industry. Our Opportunity Trackers source and upload exclusive, public and private sector opportunities from across the UK. Gone are the days of relying on inaccurate CPV codes! You’re able to filter and search the results by keyword, budget, location and more. This streamlines the process, allowing you to find the perfect landscaping tender for your company.

Below are previous landscaping tenders sourced on our portal:

Adam & Eve Hard Landscaping

University of Winchester- South East- Budget: Undisclosed

Barcud – Landscaping 2021-2022

Barcud Cyf- Wales- Budget: Undisclosed

Land West of Woodhouse Lane, Hedge End: Construction of Natural Turf Sports Pitches, Footways and Landscaping

Eastleigh Borough Council- South East- Budget: Undisclosed

Landscaping Project Phase 1 at St Peters Garden

Chalfont St Peter Parish Council- South East- Budget: Undisclosed

Landscaping Services – Lot 3 Argyll and the Islands

Highlands and Islands Enterprise- Scotland- Budget: £101,250

A 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders offers your business:

  • Access to all exclusive, public and private sector opportunities within the facilities management industry.
  • An on-hand Account Manager available to answer any questions you may have about the tendering process in general.
  • A daily email bulletin sent straight to your inbox when new, sector-specific opportunities are uploaded.
  • Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
  • 20-minutes of free consultancy with one of our Bid Consultants each month.

We also track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

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

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite allows you to identify tendering opportunities even when you’re busy. Our two upgraded packages can improve your competitor awareness and bidding success rate. Each can help save you even more time when searching for landscaping tenders.

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

  • A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Facilities and Construction, for example.
  • Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid
  • Weekly phone calls with your dedicated Account Manager to discuss viable facilities tendering opportunities.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package also includes:

  • All of the above.
  • Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
  • Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business grow.

Commercial Maintenance Contracts: 5 Things to Expect When Tendering

Commercial maintenance contracts & tendering

Commercial maintenance contracts are put out to tender by private and public sector organisations procuring building maintenance works and services. They can be found for non-residential buildings such as:

  • Schools
  • Offices
  • Universities
  • Retail facilities.

Commercial maintenance contracts can be used to procure a range of goods, services and works. These could include:

5 things you can expect from commercial maintenance contracts

  1. Insurance

Contractors will often require you to provide copies of your insurance when tendering for work. You will likely need to attach it as part of the appendices during the pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ). This is an initial stage set by a buyer to ensure you meet the minimum eligibility criteria.

Buyers will want to ensure you have the basic levels of insurance to deliver the commercial maintenance contracts at hand. There are four main types of insurance asked within tendering, these are:

  • Employer’s (Compulsory) Liability Insurance
  • Public Liability Insurance
  • Professional Indemnity Insurance
  • Product Liability Insurance.
  1. Health and safety

You will likely need to detail your business’s health and safety policy. Buyers want to be reassured that you uphold best practice and carry out the highest health and safety standards. You may also be required to do a risk assessment depending on the buyer and the contract at hand. This could include the measures you have in place and a business continuity plan in the case of:

  • Equipment failure
  • Materials shortage/non-delivery
  • Staff shortage
  • Resources/capacity.

Relevant policies and regulations that could be relevant are:

  • CHAS
  • SafeContractor
  • RIDDOR
  • CDN Regulations 2015.
  1. Experience

Contractors for commercial maintenance contracts will likely require you to provide evidence of your professional ability. They want to be reassured that you are capable of fulfilling the contracts and have relevant experience. You may be required to provide up to three case studies carried out within the last three or five years.

These case studies should demonstrate:

  • Past contracts similar in scale and complexity
  • How you delivered the contract and mobilisation
  • Any challenges you encountered and how you overcame them
  • Whether you completed the contract on time and within budget.
  1. Quality management

Tendering for commercial maintenance contracts will likely contain a section of quality management. An example of a quality management question is:

“Please detail your methodology for managing the quality of the workmanship and materials for both directly employed trades and any subcontractors.”

You will likely need to include quality management systems such as ISO 9001; 14001; 18001. Key Performance Indicators are also a good way to demonstrate your quality management. You want to establish the consistency and quality of your services to the buyer. Persuasive writing is essential as you want to convince them why you are the best business for the job.

  1. Value for money

A contractor in the public sector will always award the contract to tenders that demonstrate the most value for money. This is known as the MEAT and stands for the most economically advantageous tender. This is when a buyer looks at more than just price. They assess the tender on a multitude of factors. They could include:

  • Accessibility
  • Environmental factors
  • Sustainability
  • Ability to deliver on time
  • Innovation
  • Quality
  • Technical ability.

As mentioned above, every buyer is different and will have different demands from each other. This is why you will need to read the tender documents carefully before progressing with any tender. A buyers’ requirements will be detailed within the specification.

When tendering for public sector commercial maintenance contracts, you will need to consider social value. A tender will have a minimum weighting of 10% on social value. You should consider the social, environmental and economic aspects of delivering the contract. These pledges and policies are often contractually binding, so you want to make promises you can actually deliver. These could include:

  • COVID-19 recovery
  • Reducing waste and encouraging recycling
  • Paying employees the National Living Wage to tackle economic inequality
  • Equal opportunities policies
  • Training apprentices or employing local labour.

Need assistance writing your next commercial maintenance contracts?

You may not have the resources or time to write a winning response for commercial maintenance contracts in-house. It can take a great deal of time out of your busy day. Outsourcing to a bid writing company can help take the headache out of tendering and maximise your chances of success.

Our sister company Hudson Succeed, have over 60 years of bid writing experience and an 87% success rate. They offer four bid writing support services that can help you win more commercial maintenance contracts.

Tender Writing

Once you’ve found the perfect commercial maintenance contract for your business, send it our way. Our Bid Writers can take care of it all for you and they’ll even submit it on your behalf. They’ll let you know what they need from you, providing you with a full Tender Writing breakdown.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready 4-week programme is perfect for those who have never tendered before. A Bid Writer will work with you to make sure you have everything you need in place to tender successfully. The Tender Ready programme offers your business:

  • A 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders
  • Access to Global Bid Directors and Senior Bidding professionals
  • An organisation-wide Bid Library, including 3 case studies, 5 CV’s and 8 policies
  • Additional flexible benefit options.

Tender Improvement

Tender Improvement can help if you aren’t seeing the desired results from your current tendering efforts. The Bid Team will assess your previous responses and tender documents, working with you to improve for future submissions. This package includes a 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders and additional tendering development services.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written your own tender response and need someone to double-check it for errors, Tender Mentor can help. Our Bid Team will proofread your work for any inconsistencies, grammar or spelling mistakes. They’ll also ensure that it’s in line with the specification before you submit.

Where can I find commercial maintenance contracts for my business?

Searching for the right tender for your company can take time. There are thousands of sites posting multi-industry opportunities that are updated daily. Each may require a different login, password or portal and it can be hard to keep up. Simply relying on CPV codes can result in missed opportunities. This is because they are often mislabelled, ironically, going against their very purpose.

Luckily for you, we have a time-saving tool that can help optimise your search using one, easy-to-navigate centralised portal. Facilities Tenders is a portal that hosts all live tendering opportunities within the facilities management industry.

Our Opportunity Trackers source and upload exclusive, public and private sector tenders from across the UK. You’re able to filter and search the results by keyword, budget, location and more. This allows you to find the perfect commercial maintenance contracts for your business, streamlining the process.

Below are previous commercial maintenance contracts sourced on our portal:

HVAC and BMS Systems Planned Maintenance and Responsive Remedial Works with the Potential for Additional Project Works

Birkbeck University- London- Budget: Undisclosed

Fire and Security Systems Planned Maintenance and Responsive Remedial Works with the Potential for Additional Project Works

Birkbeck University- London- Budget: Undisclosed

Fall Protection Inspections, Equipment Servicing, Maintenance and Training

University of Southampton- South East- Budget: £300,000

Maintain, Inspect, Test, & Repair the Building Energy Management Systems (BeMS), Plant and Equipment Controls

University of Huddersfield e-Tendering- Yorkshire and Humber- Budget: Undisclosed

Quantum Technology Centre Cleanroom Service and Maintenance

University of Lancaster- North West- Budget: £25,000

A 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders offers your business:

  • Access to all exclusive, public and private sector opportunities within the facilities management industry.
  • An on-hand Account Manager available to answer any questions you may have about finding commercial maintenance contracts. They can help you understand the procurement process and answer any questions you have about the tendering process in general.
  • A daily email bulletin sent straight to your inbox when new, sector-specific opportunities are uploaded.
  • Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
  • 20-minutes of free consultancy with one of our Bid Consultants each month.

We also track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

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

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite allows you to identify tendering opportunities even when you’re busy. Our two upgraded packages can improve your competitor awareness and bidding success rate. Each can help save you even more time when searching for commercial maintenance contracts.

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

  • A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Facilities and Logistics, for example.
  • Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid
  • Weekly phone calls with your dedicated Account Manager to discuss viable facilities tendering opportunities.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package also includes:

  • All of the above.
  • Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
  • Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business grow.

How to Get Security Contracts for My Company

3 steps to help you get security contracts for your business

Have you been Googling terms such as “how to get security contracts for my company”? You aren’t alone with your dilemma. Tendering for work is a great route that can enable your business to grow. Security contracts can range from key holding to CCTV and manned guarding to patrols.

You may be wondering how to get security contracts for your company? Generally speaking, there are three steps to winning security contracts:

  1. Knowing where to find security contracts that are up for tender.
  2. Competitively pricing your services.
  3. Knowing how to write a high-quality bid response.

Let’s assess these steps one by one.

Step 1: How to find security contracts for your company

Knowing where to find security contracts for your company can turn into a bit of a headache. There are thousands of sites across the UK that publish security tenders daily. Many of them require their own login and passwords and keeping track can turn into a full-time job.

Ideally, you should be looking for one site that posts industry-specific opportunities from across the UK. You want to be able to search for viable security contracts for your company, tailored to your needs.

Facilities Tenders is a portal that hosts all the live tendering opportunities within the facilities management industry. Gone are the days of relying on inaccurate CPV codes! Our Opportunity Trackers source and upload exclusive, public and private sector opportunities from across the UK. You’re able to filter and search the results by keyword, budget, location and more. This streamlines the process. It’s a good solution for when you’re asking yourself “how do I get security contracts for my company”.

Below are previous security contracts sourced on our portal:

Street Marshall Service – 29 March – 21 June 2021 for Allerdale BC

Allerdale Borough Council- North West- Budget: Undisclosed

Door Access System for Tamworth Enterprise Centre

Tamworth Borough Council- West Midlands- Budget: Undisclosed

West Alarm and CCTV Signalling and Monitoring

English Heritage- South West- Budget: Undisclosed

Barnet & Southgate College – Onsite Security Services

Barnet and Southgate College- London- Budget: Undisclosed

Invitation to Tender – Site Security Services

Eden Geothermal Limited- South West- Budget: Undisclosed

What makes Facilities Tenders different?

A 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders offers your business access to all exclusive, private and public sector opportunities. An on-hand Account Manager will be able to answer any questions regarding how to get security contracts for your company. They’ll also be able to answer any queries you may have about the procurement and tendering process in general.

A daily email bulletin is sent straight to your inbox when new tenders are uploaded. The 12-month subscription also includes discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division. Moreover, you’ll be entitled to 20-minutes of free tender consultancy with one of our Bid Consultants each month.

We also track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

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

Step 2: Price your bid right

You want to make sure that you don’t try to undercut your competitors on price when tendering for security contracts. The cheapest bid does not win if tendering for public sector contracts. Buyers will be expecting the prices you put in your bid to be fixed and final. You want to price your services competitively, but pricing too low will raise suspicion. Pricing your services too low may lead the buyer to question your company’s legitimacy.

If tendering for a private sector contract, the cheapest bid may well win. The private sector isn’t constrained by the same rules and requirements the public sector is. The public sector can’t award a bid simply on price. They have to award it to the most economically advantageous tender, known as the MEAT. The MEAT seeks out the most value for money.

A public sector buyer will evaluate a range of factors, including:

  • COVID-19 recovery
  • Accessibility
  • Technical ability
  • Customer service
  • Ability to deliver on time
  • Innovation
  • Environmental considerations
  • Equality and diversity policies
  • Sustainability.

A buyer may assess these factors, and others, individually or combined. Each buyer will have different requirements, so it’s best to give the tender specification documents a thorough read through.

Step 3: Write a high-quality written response for security tenders

Buyers will be expecting a high-quality written tender response. The quality of your writing is important, no matter the weighting. Even if the quality section is weighted less than cost, you should still aim for the best score possible.

You should aim to keep your response:

  • Clear and concise
  • Assertive and persuasive, not descriptive
  • As close to the word or page count as possible.

3 things you can expect from security contracts

  1. Qualifications and accreditations

You will be expected to hold a range of qualifications and accreditations when tendering for security contracts. The security industry faces high risks. Contractors like to know that your business and employees are up to date on the relevant policies and regulations. They want to be reassured that you have completed relevant training and your security company demonstrates best practice. These could include:

  • SIA Licenses
  • CHAS
  • NSI
  • ISO 9001; 14001; 18001; 27001; 45001
  • CyberEssentials
  • SMAS
  • NASDU.
  1. Evidence

Buyers will always ask for previous evidence and examples of past contracts you have carried out. They want to be reassured that you are capable of fulfilling the contracts and have experience. You may be required to provide up to three case studies carried out within the last three or five years.

These case studies should be similar in scope and work of a similar calibre. You may want to consider:

  • Your experience on a project of a similar scale.
  • How you mobilised and delivered the contract.
  • The challenges you encountered and how you overcame them, demonstrating problem-solving skills and flexibility.
  • If you completed the contract on time and in budget.

Depending on the word count, you may also consider adding a positive testimonial from a previous satisfied client. A glowing testimonial will give your response an added edge over your competitors, increasing the buyer’s confidence in your company.

Your case studies should be:

  • Relevant
  • Detailed
  • Thorough
  • Well-developed
  • Include concrete evidence
  • Demonstrate your company’s abilities.
  1. Health and Safety

As mentioned above, the security industry comes with risks. Buyers should be confident that the security services you’re providing are carried out to the highest health and safety standards. You should ask yourself and detail:

  • How do you keep up to date with new guidance?
  • How do you communicate this to your staff?
  • What health and safety practices do you have in place?
  • How do your staff receive training?
  • How do you safeguard your employees and members of the public?

In your response, you must convey that all of these are aligned with best practice to win security contracts for your company. You may be required to provide a risk assessment. You may also be asked how you handle risks, conflicts and your out of hours procedure.

Need assistance?

We understand that writing a tendering response doesn’t come naturally to a lot of people, and that’s ok. It can be confusing keeping up with various procurement terminology and navigating through tendering specification documents for security contracts. You may not have the time, money or resources to write a winning response in-house. Outsourcing to bid writing experts can help you get the most out of your security company. They can help you write, or completely take over writing, a winning tender response for you.

Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, have an 87% success rate and over 60 years of collective bid writing experience. They offer four levels of bid writing support that can help increase your chances of success. Whether you’re completely new to the tendering process, or even if you’ve tendered before, they can help via:

  1. A Tender Ready programme
  2. The Tender Improvement package
  3. Tender Writing services
  4. Tender Mentor

Hopefully, these three steps can help you if you’re asking yourself “how to get security contracts for my company”.

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite allows you to identify tendering opportunities – even when you’re busy. Our two upgraded packages can improve your competitor awareness and bidding success rate. Each can help save you even more time when searching for security contracts for your business.

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Facilities and Logistics, for example.
  • A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
  • Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid strategy.
  • Weekly phone calls with your Account Manager to discuss viable tendering opportunities.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package offers your business:

  • All of the above.
  • Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
  • Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business grow.

How to Prepare for Gritting Tenders

Gritting Tenders: 5 things to expect

Gritting tenders can be a competitive process in the lead up to winter. This is why you must be prepared in order to outshine your competitors when it comes to your bid response. Due to the nature of the British climate, gritting tenders are consistently published by private and public sector organisations.

You should make sure that you are well prepared for when gritting tenders are released. There are a number of ways you can do this. Knowing what to expect can help as well as having an organisation-wide bid library. This can help save you time when it comes to writing your bid response.

5 things you can expect to include in gritting tenders

  1. A business continuity plan

Gritting tenders will often require potential suppliers to detail and business continuity plan. A bidder should maintain a detailed plan, which should be updated annually, including:

  • A disaster recovery plan
  • Recovery time objectives.

A business continuity plan should detail what provisions will be in place. It should plan to ensure consistency of supply in the event of:

  • Vehicle and/or equipment failure
  • Adverse weather conditions
  • Major road disruptions and fuel shortages
  • Industrial dispute/staff shortages
  • Receivership
  • Loss of information technology
  • Loss of premises.

It could also include, but shouldn’t be limited to the details of:

  • When and how the plan will be implemented
  • Safeguarding arrangements
  • Fallback contact details
  • Fallback relocation plans
  • Temporary arrangements
  • Arrangements for reviewing and modifying the contingency plan.
  1. Qualifications and accreditations

Buyers will be expecting you to provide your business’s relevant qualifications and accreditations. They will expect you to keep up with best practice as gritting can be a dangerous job. A few examples that could be required is:

  • ISO 9001; 14001
  • OSHAS 18001
  • RIDDOR
  • Health and Safety Management policies
  • Risk assessment.

You will likely be asked to provide these as attached tender documents in the appendices.

  1. References

Organisations commissioning gritting tenders will often require you to provide references of previous contracts you’ve worked on. A buyer may ask for up to three past case studies of contracts you’ve completed within the last five years. A question that’s asking for references may be phrased like this:

Please provide details of 3 previous contracts which you have won. The details must be for like contracts with a duration of at least 12 months, if possible. If you are unable to provide details of contracts with a duration of at least 12 months, please provide details of your longest contracts.”

These case studies and references should be similar in scope and complexity, demonstrating your business’s capabilities.

  1. Social value

If applying for gritting tenders in the public sector, you will need to consider your social value policies. There is now a mandatory minimum weighting of 10% within public sector tenders. This is because the government is obligated to take steps towards a more sustainable procurement practice.

You will need to consider the social, economic and environmental aspects of the contract. Buyers will be looking for suppliers that make promises they can keep. You could include social values such as:

  • Equal opportunity and diversity policies you implement to ensure a fair and diverse workplace.
  • COVID-19 recovery.
  • Environmental considerations such as reducing waste and tackling climate change.
  • Reduction of carbon emissions.
  • Employment of local labour to tackle unemployment.
  • Apprenticeships and encouragement of creating new skills.
  • Paying staff National Living Wage to tackle economic inequality.
  1. Pricing

Gritting tenders are often assessed on three things:

  • Quality
  • Cost
  • Social value (for public sector organisations).

The weighting of all of the above can vary greatly depending on the buyer. Pricing your services correctly is important. You want to make sure that the price you submit is accurate and one you can keep. Buyers will likely expect the price you detail in your tender response to be fixed and final. You shouldn’t undercut the price of your services. It may result in the buyer questioning the legitimacy of your services.

Need help writing your next gritting tenders?

Buyers care about the quality of your written gritting tender response. You might not have the resources, experience or time to write a winning bid and that’s ok. The average bid response totals 6,000 words. You have enough on your plate as a business owner. Outsourcing your gritting tenders to a bid writing service can help you win more contracts whilst saving you time.

Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, have over 60 years of bid writing experience and boast an 87% success rate. They offer four bid writing support services that can help you win gritting tenders. Whether you aren’t seeing success from your tendering efforts, or need your response proofread before you submit – we can help.

Tender Writing

Once you’ve found the perfect gritting tender for your business, send it our way. Our Bid Writers will let you know what they need from you, providing you with a full Tender Writing breakdown. They can take care of the whole bid for you and they’ll even submit it on your behalf. This can save you time, allowing you to focus on delivering work.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready 4-week programme is perfect for those who are completely new to tendering. A Bid Writer will work with you to make sure you have everything you need in place to tender successfully. The Tender Ready programme offers your business:

  • A 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders
  • Access to Global Bid Directors and Senior Bidding professionals
  • An organisation-wide Bid Library, including 3 case studies, 5 CV’s and 8 policies
  • Additional flexible benefit options.

Tender Improvement

Tender Improvement can help if you aren’t seeing the desired results from your tendering efforts. The Bid Team will assess your previous responses and tender documents, working with you to improve for future submissions. This package includes a 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders and additional tendering development services.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written your own tender response and need someone to double-check it for errors, Tender Mentor can help. Our Bid Team will ensure that it’s in line with the specification before you submit. They’ll proofread your work for any inconsistencies, grammar or spelling mistakes.

Where can I find gritting tenders?

Finding the right gritting tender for your business can take hours out of your day. There are thousands of websites and portals that post tendering opportunities daily. Each may require you to have a different login and password from the next, it can turn into a full-time job. You would expect there to be a simple solution.

Enter…Facilities Tenders

Facilities Tenders is one easy-to-navigate, centralised portal that hosts all the live tenders from the facilities management industry. It’s a time-saving tool that can help streamline the tendering process. Our Opportunity Trackers manually search and upload tenders from across the UK. Gone are the days of relying on inaccurate CPV codes! They post exclusive, public and private sector opportunities. You’re able to filter and search the results by keyword, budget, location and more. This helps you to find the perfect gritting tenders for your business.

A 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders offers your business:

  • Access to all exclusive, public and private sector opportunities within the facilities management industry.
  • A dedicated Account Manager that’s available to answer any questions you may have about gritting tenders. They can help you understand the procurement process and answer any questions you have about the tendering process in general.
  • A daily email bulletin sent straight to your inbox when new sector-specific opportunities are uploaded.
  • Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
  • 20-minutes of free consultancy with one of our Bid Consultants each month.

Below are previous gritting tenders sourced on our portal:

ID3715 Winter Maintenance — Stansted Airport

Stansted Airport Ltd- London- Budget: Undisclosed

Bulk Supply of De-icing Salt for Winter Road Surface Treatment

North Yorkshire County Council- Yorkshire and Humber- Budget: £15,000,000

Grounds Maintenance including Winter Gritting

The Police and Crime Commissioner for Derbyshire- East Midlands- Budget: £650,000

Roads and Car Park Winter Gritting from 1st November 2020 to 30th April 2021/HMCD

The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust- Yorkshire and Humber- Budget: Undisclosed

Provision of Winter Gritting Services

PD Teesport Limited- North East- Budget: £20,000

We also track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

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

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite allows you to identify tendering opportunities even when you’re busy. Our two upgraded packages can improve your competitor awareness and bidding success rate. Each can help save you even more time when searching for gritting tenders for your business.

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

  • A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Facilities and Logistics, for example.
  • Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid strategy.
  • Weekly phone calls with your Account Manager to discuss viable tendering opportunities.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package also includes:

  • All of the above.
  • Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
  • Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business grow.

Boiler Contracts in the UK: What to Expect

How are boiler contracts in the UK evaluated?

Boiler contracts in the UK are constantly put out to tender due to the nature of the British climate. Tendering for work can be beneficial to your business, and you should consider it as a viable business expansion option. Boiler contracts in the UK can range in duration from a few months to multiple years. Securing them can create a constant stream of work.

Boiler contracts in the UK could be required for a number of reasons such as:

  • Replacement of boilers
  • Boiler servicing
  • Maintenance and service of boilers
  • Design and installation of replacement boilers.

The contracts could be released by a wide range of both private and public sector organisations. Universities, councils, schools, residential and commercial buildings have a need to maintain the upkeep of boilers throughout the year.

Regulations, qualifications and accreditations

A tender response for boiler contracts in the UK will require you to be up to date with certain regulations. A buyer wants to be reassured that you uphold best practice. Therefore, they will likely require you to have certain qualifications and accreditations. These will help demonstrate your company’s capability.

  • Health & Safety at Work Act of 1974
  • Management of Health and Safety at Work regulations of 1999
  • Provision of Use of Work Equipment regulations of 1998 & Amendment 2018
  • Boiler work carried out in relation to the latest British Standards relevant to the type of boiler being worked on
  • CHAS
  • Gas Safety (Installation & Use) Regulations 1998
  • CDM 2015.

Staffing

Buyers will often ask for details on your staff that you expect will work on the project. They may ask for the following:

  • Personal identification
  • Sub-contractors.

Site visits

The tendering process for boiler contracts in the UK may allow for site visits. This will be detailed within the specification. Sometimes it’s mandatory, sometimes it’s optional and sometimes it might not be offered at all.

If they are optional, it’s highly recommended that you go as they can really strengthen your tender response. Site visits give you the opportunity to see the proposed working environment. They may even allow you to develop more accurate pricing and gain an insight into the buyer.

The award criteria

The award criteria for boiler contracts in the UK is typically split into two or three areas, depending on the buyer. These can be the following:

  1. Pricing

Pricing your bid right is an important part of any tender. You want to be realistic. Don’t submit a price just to undercut your competitors. A buyer will often expect the cost of your services to be fixed and final. If you price unrealistically then run overbudget while fulfilling the contract, a buyer won’t be best pleased.

Public sector businesses will often look at more than just price. They award the bid to the most economically advantageous tender. This means that the cheapest bid does not win. Public sector businesses will be looking at a combination of factors. These could include:

  • Accessibility
  • Customer service
  • Innovation
  • Ability to deliver on time
  • Quality
  • Environmental factors.

However, if tendering for UK boiler contracts in the private sector, it would be a different story. Private sector businesses don’t have to meet certain policies or requirements on how they spend their money. They may award to a contract based simply on price.

  1. Customer requirements

For boiler contracts in the UK, you may be required to detail the service delivery and your technical capacity. You may be asked questions like the following:

“Please explain how the account will be managed and the structure of the personnel involved.”

“Please describe how your organisation will provide technical support and advise prior to, during and after work completion.” 

“Implementation plan: How will your organisation ensure the successful implementation and subsequent delivery of the contract. Consider different establishments with different due dates on their servicing schedules.”

  1. The environment and sustainability

This section can also be known as added value or social value depending on the contract. For public sector buyers social value has a mandatory minimum weighting of 10%. This means it is not something to skip over when applying for public sector contracts. Buyers care about your response and want to see you making promises you can keep. It’s expected that you have considered the environmental, social and economic aspects of the contract. These could include:

  • COVID-19 recovery.
  • Environmental considerations in place such as reducing waste and encouraging recycling.
  • Paying staff the National Living Wage to tackle economic inequality
  • The equal opportunity policies you implement.
  • How you are creating new skills or jobs via employment of local labour or apprenticeships.

This section is often where you would detail ISO 14001 or equivalent. Examples of such social value and environment questions that could be asked are as follows:

“Please detail the initiatives you intend to employ to minimise or reduce adverse environmental impact incurred in delivery of this contract, including the scheduling of site visits to reduce carbon in transportation.”

“Your organisation’s internal policies, processes and procedures in relation to environmental management including how they are regularly monitored and updated.”

“Please describe any initiatives that will be in place within your organisation to reduce the impact you have on carbon emissions in relation to this contract, including but not limited to energy reduction within your premises and fleet; and keeping transportation of goods to a minimum in relation to this contract. Your response may also include any other initiatives that will be in one place within your organisation to offset your carbon emissions in relation to this contract.”

Need assistance writing a bid for UK boiler contracts?

You may not have the time or resources in house to write a winning tender response for boiler contracts. Writing isn’t everyone’s strong suit and navigating bid responses can be difficult and confusing. So, why not outsource it to a bid writing service?

Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, have an 87% success rate and over 60 years of bid writing experience. They offer four bid writing support services that can help you win your next boiler contracts in the UK. Whether you’re completely new to tendering, or need your response proofread before you submit – we can help.

Tender Writing

Once you’ve found the perfect boiler contract for your business, send it our way. Our Bid Writers can take care of it all for you and they’ll even submit it on your behalf. They’ll let you know what they need from you, providing you with a full Tender Writing breakdown. 

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready 4-week programme is perfect for those who have never tendered before. A Bid Writer will work with you to make sure you have everything you need in place to tender successfully. The Tender Ready programme offers your business:

  • A 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders
  • Access to Global Bid Directors and Senior Bidding professionals
  • An organisation-wide Bid Library, including 3 case studies, 5 CV’s and 8 policies
  • Additional flexible benefit options.

Tender Improvement

Tender Improvement can help if you aren’t seeing the desired results from your tendering efforts. The Bid Team will assess your previous responses and tender documents, working with you to improve for future submissions. This package includes a 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders and additional tendering development services.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written your own tender response and need someone to double-check it for errors, Tender Mentor can help. Our Bid Team will proofread your work for any inconsistencies, grammar or spelling mistakes. They’ll also ensure that it’s in line with the specification before you submit.

Where can I find boiler contracts in the UK?

Finding the right boiler contracts in the UK can take up a lot of your day. There are multiple sites and portals that host opportunities, each requiring you to have a different login. Many of them post multi-industry opportunities and searching for sector-specific leads can turn into a full-time job.

Luckily for you, we have a time-saving tool that can help optimise your search using one, easy-to-navigate centralised portal. Facilities Tenders is a portal that hosts all live tendering opportunities within the facilities management industry. There’s no reliance on inaccurate CPV codes!

Our Opportunity Trackers source and upload exclusive, public and private sector opportunities from across the UK. You’re able to filter and search the results by keyword, budget, location and more. This streamlines the process, allowing you to find the perfect UK boiler contracts for your business.

Below are previous boiler contracts in the UK sourced on our portal:

Parkfield High School Boiler Re-Location and Associated Mechanical, Electrical and Builders Works

Wolverhampton City Council- West Midlands- Budget: Undisclosed

Newchurch Primary School Boiler Works

Isle of Wight Council- Wales- Budget: Undisclosed

Boiler replacement – Hanworth Air Park Leisure Centre Feltham

London Borough of Hounslow- London- Budget: Undisclosed

Beneavin De La Salle College

Beneavin De La Salle College- International- Budget: Undisclosed

Design and Installation of Replacement Boilers and Associated Mechanical Plant at City Hall

Norwich City Council- Eastern- Budget: £500,000

A 12-month subscription to Facilities Tenders offers your business:

  • Access to all exclusive, public and private sector opportunities within the facilities management industry.
  • An on-hand Account Manager that’s available to answer any questions you may have about boiler contracts in the UK. They can help you understand the procurement process and answer any questions you have about the tendering process in general.
  • A daily email bulletin sent straight to your inbox when new sector-specific opportunities are uploaded.
  • Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
  • 20-minutes of free consultancy with one of our Bid Consultants each month.

We also track opportunities for the following sub-sectors:

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

Want to save even more time?

Upgrading to Discover Elite allows you to identify tendering opportunities even when you’re busy. Our two upgraded packages can improve your competitor awareness and bidding success rate. Each can help save you even more time when searching for boiler contracts in the UK.

The Ultimate Time Saver package offers your business:

  • A maximum of five tender breakdowns per month.
  • An annual subscription to a maximum of two Hudson Discover sector-specific portals. This option can help businesses that overlap two industries such as Facilities and Logistics, for example.
  • Pre-market and award engagement notices monitored on your behalf.
  • Buyer portal management, including registration, password management, downloading documents and assessing viability based on your bid or no-bid
  • Weekly phone calls with your dedicated Account Manager to discuss viable facilities tendering opportunities.

The Become a Pre-Bid Master package also includes:

  • All of the above.
  • Up to seven tender breakdowns per month.
  • Bid Strategy delivered by a Senior Bid Manager with a minimum of 5 years of experience. It will also be managed by our Global Bid Director.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business grow.