Prepared for
Harwell Property Maintenance Ltd fictional
Sample tender analysis · building maintenance
Responsive repairs & voids — borough council term contract
1Opportunity summary
The council is re-letting its whole-stock responsive repairs and void-property refurbishment service as a single contract. Award is 55% quality / 35% price / 10% social value, with a mandatory financial-standing gate: minimum annual turnover of twice the annual contract value, evidenced by two years of filed accounts.
Harwell's filed turnover is £2.1m against a requirement of £3.6m. This is not a judgement call — it is an automatic pass/fail set out in SQ 3.2, checked before quality answers are even opened.
2Deadline register
| Date | Time | Event | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri 14 Aug 2026 | 17:00 | Clarification questions close | Only relevant if pursuing the consortium route (§5) |
| Fri 18 Sep 2026 | 12:00 | Submission deadline | — |
| Apr 2027 | — | Contract start | — |
| ~2031 | — | Expected re-let of this contract | The real target — see route back |
3Compliance matrix — mandatory requirements
| Ref | Mandatory requirement | Source | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| M1 | Turnover ≥ £3.6m (2× annual value), 2 years' accounts | SQ 3.2 | FAIL — £2.1m filed · automatic exclusion, no discretion |
| M2 | Public liability ≥ £10m | SQ 4.1 | £5m held — upgradeable, but moot given M1 |
| M3 | SSIP accreditation | SQ 5.1 | Evidence supplied — SafeContractor current |
| M4 | Gas Safe registration (voids works) | Spec 4.7 | Evidence supplied — via existing sub-contractor agreement |
| M5 | 24/7 emergency response capability | Spec 2.1 | Partial — out-of-hours rota covers current clients only; would need scaling |
| M6 | 3 comparable social-housing contracts | SQ 7.1 | 1 of 3 — housing-association voids contract (2024–now); other work is commercial |
4Evidence-gap report
Financial standing (M1) Unsupported — do not submit
No honest construction of Harwell's accounts reaches £3.6m. Any bid claiming otherwise would fail verification at award stage — and burn the company's credibility with a buyer it will want in 2031. There is no evidence route; this gap closes only through growth or partnership.
Social-housing track record (M6) Buildable within 18 months
One comparable contract today. The housing-association voids contract renews in 2027 and two neighbouring associations let voids work annually at £150k–£400k — the right size to build references 2 and 3.
Operational capability Genuinely strong
Void turnaround times (11-day average, evidenced from the current contract's KPI reports) would score well on this ITT's quality questions. The capability isn't the problem — the balance sheet is. That's exactly why the no-bid is "this time", not "this market".
5Bid / no-bid assessment
| Factor | Weight | Score | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eligibility | 30 | 0 | M1 is an automatic exclusion — nothing else can compensate |
| Deliverability | 25 | 14 | Strong voids capability; 24/7 whole-stock response would stretch current structure |
| Competitiveness | 25 | 15 | Quality story is credible; track-record depth behind likely national bidders |
| Commercial attractiveness | 20 | 12 | Term contract at this scale would transform the business — which is exactly why the gate exists |
| Total | 100 | 41 | NO-BID — eligibility failure is terminal for a prime bid |
Recommendation
Don't bid this as prime. Spend the writing days on the route back.
A tender you cannot pass at the gate costs 10–15 working days and returns nothing. The same effort, pointed at the three moves below, makes the 2031 re-let — and plenty before it — genuinely winnable.
6The route back
| Move | Window | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 1 · Approach the likely winners as a voids sub-contractor | Now–Oct 2026 | Two or three regional primes will bid this. A named voids sub-contractor with an 11-day turnaround strengthens their bid — get the conversation in before their submissions close, on the record, this month. |
| 2 · Win two more social-housing voids contracts at £150k–£400k | 2026–2028 | Closes the M6 track-record gap and grows turnover toward the next gate. These tenders come up steadily — this is BidCrier alert territory. |
| 3 · Explore a consortium/joint bid for the next comparable term contract | 2027+ | Consortium turnover is usually assessed collectively. A structured JV with a mechanical partner clears gates neither firm passes alone. Take proper advice before committing — flagged as a decision for Harwell's directors. |
An honest "don't bid" is worth more than a hopeful "go for it"
This is the report nobody selling bid-writing hours wants to send you. We'd rather you keep your ten days and spend £99 finding that out on day one — with a concrete plan for what to do instead.
Request your founding analysis →Illustrative sample. "Harwell Property Maintenance Ltd", the council and all dates, values and documents are fictional; the structure mirrors requirements commonly seen in UK social-housing repairs tenders. Not legal, financial or procurement advice; no output guarantees any contract award.