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The Fundamentals of Building Material Supply Tenders

Posted on by John Hudson

Building material supply tenders and the impact of Brexit and COVID-19

Building material supply tenders are essential for any construction project be it in either the public or private sectors.

Building material supply tenders may be looking to procure a range of materials such as:

  • Heavy materials
  • Bricks, block, stone, cement
  • Electrical products
  • Flooring
  • Hire and purchase of plant, tools and equipment
  • Plumbing and heating
  • Building and construction tools and equipment.

Brexit and COVID-19 have had quite an impact on the construction industry, particularly regarding building material supplies. There has been a shortage of supplies of roof tiles and timber. This is due to high demand caused by a boom in the housing market and delays at some British ports. Timber prices have risen by 20% as a consequence and there have been escalated prices for shipping disrupting supply chains.

PAS91

Before you submit your building material supply tenders, you’ll often need to complete a PAS91. A PAS91 is a standardised form of pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) frequently used within construction. You’ll need to pass this in order to progress to the next stage of receiving an invitation to tender (ITT).

A PAS91 is essentially a box ticking exercise to ensure you meet the minimum criteria for the contract. You’ll need to answer questions on things such as:

  • Company information
  • Your economic and financial standing
  • Quality Assurance
  • Health & Safety
  • Environmental considerations
  • Equal opportunities & Diversity

If you’re an SME, the PAS91 is designed with you in mind, aiming to simplify and streamline the process. This is to encourage more SMEs to tender for work in the hope of achieving the government’s pledge towards SMEs. They aim to spend £1 in £3 with SMEs, meaning they’re actively looking to award contracts to smaller businesses.

Framework agreements

Framework agreements are a common form of procurement for building material supply tenders. They are used to establish a multi-supplier agreement for goods or services. Framework agreements often run for multiple years at a time and can be lucrative opportunities for your business.

Buyers often split framework agreements into ‘Lots’. These Lots means a supplier doesn’t have to deliver the whole contract. They need only apply to the area in which they specialise. For example, building material supply tenders framework agreement could have Lots for the following:

  • Lot 1 – Electrical Products
  • Lot 2 – Heavy Materials
  • Lot 3 – Timber and Joinery
  • Lot 4 – Small Tool Hire
  • Lot 5 – Paint and Solvents

Lots could also cover regional location if the project is to be carried out in multiple locations. For example:

  • Lot 1 – Birmingham
  • Lot 2 – Newcastle
  • Lot 3 – Cardiff

You can often tender for one or multiple Lots, depending on the services your organisation offers. You also need to consider if you have the resources in order to carry out multiple services and locations.

Sustainability

Building material supply tenders within the public sector will often have a section on sustainability. You may have to detail how your business will manage the following:

  • Environmental Management

An accredited ISO 14001 or equivalent will be needed here. You’ll need to state what your Environment Management System is. You’ll need to explain how it controls and mitigates the environmental impact of operations.

  • Government Buying Standards

When applying for a government framework agreement within construction, you’ll need to demonstrate how you comply with government standards. You will need to supply evidence of compliance if requested. Your business should provide products that meet Government Buying Standards best practice specifications wherever possible.

The Government Buying Standards are updated every now and again. It’s important that you keep up to date with any changes to ensure you meet the requirements. It’s worth noting that all timber or timber related products must comply with the United Kingdom Government Timber Procurement Policy. They must be purchased from legal and sustainable sources and demonstrate this by fall chain of custody evidence.

  • Sustainable Product Offering

When possible, businesses should look to use materials and products that are from recycled and renewable sources. Government building material supply tenders will be looking for suppliers who are pursuing general sustainability and good practice.

Generally speaking, a business should seek to provide sustainable product alternatives within their Base Offering where possible. Buyers will appreciate when a business indicates there’s alternative goods that’ll provide greater sustainable benefits over the goods lifetime.

  • Waste

You must comply against all relevant waste legislations, keeping an eye on any updates, amendments or changes. If anything does change throughout the life of the contract, you must update your policies. Most building material supply tenders will require the insurance that waste is taken to authorised sites for treatment or disposal. Your business will then be expected to undertake regular checks to ensure that it’s disposed of properly.

  • Giving back to the local community

The sustainability sector within your tender should focus on social values. As with all public sector tenders, it’s important to demonstrate how you will be giving back to the community. You must consider the social, economic and environmental aspects while fulfilling the contract.

Depending on the buyer, you may be asked how your business is working to deliver rehabilitation work, for example. The government wants to see more prisoners working as part of the rehabilitation of offenders. It’s worth considering how your business would provide the opportunity to learn new skills and prepare for employment on release.

  • Supply chain

Even if you are an SME yourself, the public sector likes to see the inclusion of other SMEs where possible. Your construction bids may need to evidence the use or increase the use of any SMEs within your supply chain. This could be measured through Management Information or when detailing any sub-contractors in your building material supply tender response.

How we can help you win building material supply tenders

Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, are experts in bid writing. They have 60 years bid writing experience and an 87% success rate. If you’re not seeing success from your tendering efforts or are completely new to the process – we can help!

We offer four bid writing services that can help you with your next construction contract. 

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written your own building material supply tenders and want someone to double-check for errors, Tender Mentor can help. One of our Bid Writers will proofread your response and point out any grammar mistakes. This allows you to submit an error-free tender response.

Tender Improvement

Our Tender Improvement package is for those who are already tendering but aren’t seeing the desired results. During the course of the programme, our Bid Writers will go over your supporting documents and previous submissions. They’ll provide you with feedback and work with you to create improved content. This will help improve your chances of winning your next tender.

Tender Ready

Tender Ready is a programme designed for those who are completely new to tendering and procurement. This programme works with you to ensure you’re on the right track to tender successfully.

Tender Writing

Have you found a building material supply tender you want to go for, but don’t know where to start? Why not send it over to us and our Bid Writers will write the response for you. They’ll let you know what they need from you and give you a full Tender Writing breakdown. They’ll even submit it on your behalf!

You now know what to expect from building material supply tenders and know how to write one. You may be wondering where exactly you can find them?

Our Construction Tenders portal can help

Construction Tenders is an opportunity tracking platform where we source all construction leads from across the UK. Our Opportunity Trackers source live tenders from thousands of sites, saving you countless hours.

A subscription with Construction Tenders offers you:

  • Access to all unique, public and private sector opportunities in the UK.
  • No reliance on CPV codes, allowing you access to 100% of building material supply tenders.
  • The ability to filter results by keyword, budget, location and more.
  • A dedicated on-hand Account Manager to answer any questions or queries you may have about the tendering process.
  • Discounted bid writing support from Hudson Succeed.
  • 20-minutes free consultancy every month with our bid experts.

Here are just a few examples of building material supply tenders we source:

All Wales Framework: Managed Service for the provision of Building Materials and associated products

Adra (Tai) Cyf – Wales- Budget: £500,000,000

23-09-2020 

BTS Building Materials Contingency Supply requirement 2

Luton Council- Eastern- Budget: £560,000

13-11-2020

Building Materials

NEPO- North East- Budget: Undisclosed

06-01-2020

ITT for the Supply of Building Materials

Rochdale Boroughwide Housing- North West- Budget: Undisclosed

05-02-2021

Newport City Homes Building Materials Supply

Newport City Homes Limited- Wales- Budget: Undisclosed

14-12-2020

Procurement Hub Building Materials Framework

Places for People Group Limited- North West- Budget: £200,000,000

03-08-2020

Supply and Delivery of Building Materials and Aggregates

UK Power Networks Ltd- South East- Budget: Undisclosed

25-03-2020

Book a Demo with Construction Tenders

The best way to venture into the tendering world is through booking a live demo of Construction Tenders.

At Construction Tenders, we source construction leads and opportunities for;

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

Considerations for Housing Development Agency Tenders

Posted on by John Hudson

The top 3 things to consider before bidding for housing development agency tenders

Housing development agency tenders are the most common way for buyers to discover suppliers who can undertake a housing project. But what exactly is a housing development agency tender?

The basics

In short, a tender is a notice that a buyer would like to procure goods, services, or works. These buyers often don’t have the skills or capacity to deliver the requirements themselves. In order to obtain these goods, services, or works, the buyer offers third-party suppliers a contract.

Due to the nature of tendering, buyers must select suppliers fairly, openly, and transparently. This is done in the form of a bidding process where suppliers will submit their individual bids. These bid responses will outline the specific advantages of using their business as a supplier. From here, the buyer can then begin to evaluate the responses. In most cases, the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT) will win.

What is there to consider when bidding for a housing development agency tender?

Knowing the basics of tendering is the first hurdle to seeing success. The next is knowing which housing development agency tenders are suitable for your business. It can be quite tempting to jump in and want to go for all available tenders. However, if you follow our Hudson Insight Series, you will know tendering can be a time-consuming process. Before beginning the bidding process, you will need to have an idea of the tender’s suitability for your business. Make sure you have a process in place for qualifying opportunities. This can help you to avoid wasting time and effort and give you a greater chance of success. We know there is a lot to consider when tendering for work. So, here is a breakdown of the top 3 things to consider before bidding for a housing development agency tender.

  1. Budgets

A vital part of tendering is pricing. Although pricing is typically weighted less than quality on construction tenders, pricing that is too high may lose important marks. Make sure you look at the pricing guidance if this is available. This guidance will be the key to understanding if the opportunity will be suitable for your business. Is there enough money in this? Will you make a profit? Is it financially worth bidding for?

Buyers will often require that potential suppliers meet their financial threshold. This is often referred to as your economic financial standing. A general rule of thumb is to aim for opportunities that are half your turnover or lower.

If no budget is established with the buyer, then assess workloads as per the specification. This will provide an approximation as to how much is to be delivered (cost-wise). Ideally, you want to aim for the lowest price, that still makes a profit. 

  1. Evaluation Scope 

The most economically advantageous tender (MEAT) is the most common way for buyers to assess their potential suppliers. Each section of the response will be weighted in the form of a percentage of the overall tender score. The most common sections which are required from the buyer are quality and pricing.

Pricing describes the cost of the contract. As we have explained, you will submit your best price for the project. This will then be weighed against your competitor’s pricing.

Quality indicates your capabilities to deliver the contract.

Here the buyer can ask:

  • Pass/fail questions which cover the most essential requirements. If these questions are failed, you will likely be excluded from the next stage.
  • Your experience in the form of case studies.
  • How you plan to deliver the contract.
  • Your technical experience.
  • Your staff’s capabilities and CV’s.

Once you have submitted your tender it will be scored against the buyers weighting with the highest score winning.

An example

A buyer publishes an ITT. In your response, they will weight pricing as 30% of the overall tender score. Quality is weighted at 70%. This information tells you that in your response you should focus on your quality and technical expertise. The lower value of pricing says you can afford to be more competitive, however, you must have the quality to back this up.

  1. Scope of work

Another important factor when identifying housing development agency tenders is the delivery of your services. The scope of work gives you an idea of what is expected of you. When looking through this, you will need to consider:

  • The location- Are you close enough to this site to deliver the contract effectively? Will you need staff based in multiple locations? Will the buyer accept remote working where possible?
  • Your pipeline- Do you have any work lined up which will affect your delivery of this contract? Are there any possible extensions with this contract? If the work will not commence until a later date, will you have enough work in the meantime?
  • Staffing- Do you have enough available staff to deliver this contract? Do your employees have the necessary experience?

Having this checklist to hand can help you effectively identify opportunities to suit your business.

Is there still a need for housing development agency tenders?

In the UK’s current climate, it can be easy to assume tendering opportunities across all sectors will be limited. Between the pandemic and its aftereffects, Brexit, and recessions, is the economy able to justify new housing development agency tenders?

The good news is, in spite of everything that’s going on, the construction industry has been consistently releasing tenders.

An update from the National Housing Federation has revealed:

Ahead of publishing its consultation response in the spring, the government has advised that any policy changes and reforms arising from the Planning for the Future proposals will take time to implement, and that planners should not delay their delivery of local plans.

MHCLG has advised that it will publish its response to the Planning for the Future White Paper consultation in the spring, setting out its decisions on the proposed way forward including preparing for potential legislation in the autumn. The response will focus on developing the next level of policy detail, after having considered the feedback provided. Read our response to the consultation.

The reform set out in the white paper will take a few years to implement, and the government is therefore advising planning authorities not to delay their preparation regarding local plans. Planners are encouraged to progress the approval of development management decisions, including S106 agreements and the delivery of affordable housing through this means.

Where can I find these tenders? 

We can see there is still a need for housing development agency tenders. The next question is where can you find these tenders?

Construction Tenders is an opportunity tracking portal designed to be a time-saving tool for your business. We source from thousands of sites every week, making sure you have access to 100% of housing development agency tenders.

A subscription to Construction Tenders offers you:

  • A team of Opportunity Trackers sourcing public and private security bids from 1000s of sites.
  • A dedicated Account Manager on-hand to answer technical or tendering queries you may have.
  • No reliance on CPV codes or algorithms. Our team manually upload each tender, making sure that you have access to all public and private security bids.
  • The ability to filter bid opportunities by sector, keyword, budget, and location.
  • Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
  • 20-minutes of free live bid consultancy every month with our bid experts.

Here are some recent examples of housing development agency tenders we have sourced:

Proposed Housing Development at Convent Road, Doneraile, Co. Cork

Cork County Council- Republic of Ireland- Budget: Undisclosed

27-10-2020

Construction of Five Flats and associated Works on Oakfield Road, Stapleford

Broxtowe Borough Council- East Midlands- Budget: Undisclosed

26-10-2020

South and Mid-Wales Residential Construction DPS

LHC for the Welsh Procurement Alliance (WPA)- Wales- Budget: £5,000,000,000

25-10-2020

New Development at Great Chesterford, Essex

Uttlesford District Council- South East- Budget: £1,900,000

02-10-2020

Better Homes – Affordable Housing & Supported Living Provision

Scarborough Borough Council- Yorkshire and Humber- Budget: Undisclosed

02-10-2020

How do you secure a housing development agency tender? 

Now you know how to find and identify your perfect tender, how do you succeed in securing a construction contract? Bid writing can be a daunting process. The process requires having CV’s, policies and case studies at the ready, and also answering some in-depth quality questions. It’s not uncommon to wonder if you need some extra support. Many successful suppliers look to outsource this process to the professionals to ensure maximum chances of success.

Hudson Succeed can help.

Hudson Succeed is our bid writing division. They support businesses who are:

  • New to tendering.
  • Struggling to see success from their tendering efforts.
  • Requiring assistance from expert Bid Writers through ad-hoc support for important construction bids.

Our team hold an 87% bid success rate. They have secured direct contract wins totalling over £300million for our clients.

Here are some examples of the services we offer:

Book a free demo with Construction Tenders

The best way to find all the best housing development agency tenders is through Construction Tenders. Why not contact us today to find out more about how Construction Tenders can benefit your business.

At Construction Tenders, we actively source construction leads and tenders for the following sub-sectors:

Contact us today and allow us to help you grow your business with Construction Tenders.

How to Win Building Contracts

Posted on by John Hudson

Our top tips on how to win building contracts

If you’re wondering how to win building contracts, you’ve come to the right place.

Building contracts cover a plethora of different areas within the construction world. So, it can be daunting knowing where to start. Luckily for you, this blog will guide you in the right direction in securing construction contracts in the UK.

Obviously, the main purpose when you write a tender is to win. If you’re not seeing the results you want, hopefully, this blog will help you win your next building contract.

Building contracts is such a broad term, so here are just a few examples of subsections within construction bids:

  • Bricklaying
  • Welding
  • Digging
  • Pipelines
  • Cementing
  • Flatwork
  • Flooring

Today, we will be looking into how to win building contracts. First, let’s look at the different types of building contracts:

  • Commercial building contracts

Commercial building contracts are the most common way in which buyers find suppliers in construction. Building projects are quite often large projects. A commercial building contract could seek suppliers to construct warehouses, shopping centres or office towers, for example.

To find a supplier, a buyer will publish a tender for building contracts. The buyer will then collect and analyse bids from competing suppliers and the most economically advantageous tender (MEAT) wins.

  • Public and private sector tenders

Many public sector organisations appoint a framework of contractors to construct a package of projects. The public sector includes government works and there are often more building contract opportunities to be found here. There are also opportunities within the private sector, but these are more difficult to source.

A contract sets out the relationship and expectations between two parties. Building construction contracts for tender typically outline the allocation risk and price. Below are some additional popular building construction contracts for tender within the UK:

  • NEC (The New Engineering Contract)
  • CIOB (Chartered Institute of Building)
  • JCT (The Joint Contracts Tribunal)

PAS 91

The PAS91 is a standardised pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) for the construction industry. You have to pass this in order to be considered for the building contract. For this, you must provide policies and answer some questions regarding:

  • Health & Safety
  • Quality Assurance
  • Equal Opportunities & diversity
  • Environmental Considerations

Luckily, if you’re an SME, the PAS91 is designed with you in mind. It simplifies the process in order to encourage more SMEs to become suppliers. The PAS91 helps buyers identify the most suitably qualified contractors quicker, using fewer resources. Essentially, it ensures that suppliers are qualified and fit the minimum standards required for the contract. This is all to help the buyers achieve a more sustainable procurement.

Note: if you’re a Constructionline member, you are automatically PAS91 complaint for some questions. This does not mean you can skip this stage completely. You may still need to complete a few questions.

5 Top tips for how to win building contracts

Below are five tips on how to win building contracts. Primarily, you need to think about what the buyer wants. Then, you want to convince them that you’re the best organisation for the job.

  1. Be the MEAT

A MEAT doesn’t necessarily mean the cheapest bid wins the contract. It simply means the buyer is looking for a contractor who can provide the best value throughout their bid. Contracts within the public sector are where a MEAT comes out on top.

Don’t make the mistake of deliberately pricing low-cost bids in an attempt to win. This could result in you making a loss after you’ve completed the project. This could also annoy your clients. Pricing lower cost bids could result in you failing to meet quality standards or having to then ask for additional funding. Neither of which, we’re sure you’ll want to do.

Instead, you should write your proposal to demonstrate how you will deliver an outstanding service to the client. Remember, you want to provide added value to the building works. This is frequently forgotten about. Below are some examples of what you could include:

  • Investment in the buyer’s customers. You could do this by employing local people or subcontractors to deliver the works.
  • Upskilling local communities via skills workshops, apprenticeships or work placements.
  • Planning work to minimise the project costs. You could do this by bulk ordering materials in advance to save on cost and avoid delays.
  • Reducing waste from your site by repurposing it.

  1. Be specific

Study the specification as if your life depends on it. It’s there to help and will tell you, in great detail, the requirements of the project. Buyers want to know exactly how you’re going to deliver the works.

Give as much detail as you can within the set word count or page limit. This suggests how much detail the buyer wants you to go into. If they’re asking for a 500-word response, simply writing a couple of sentences won’t be sufficient. There’s a reason the question is asking for 500 words. Go into as much detail as you can, both clearly and concisely.

  1. Demonstrate relevant past experience

In order to win a building contract, you need to demonstrate that you have past relevant experience. Buyers want to see how successful you have been in the past when fulfilling similar contracts. You want to demonstrate your proven track record of a project of similar complexity. You’ll likely get the age-old question that goes a little like this:

“Please provide 3 examples which demonstrate your technical capability in the market”.

When answering, remember to keep it relevant. Make sure you’re showing work of a similar calibre. Each bid should be tailored, compelling and fitting with the specification. You will usually be asked for three past case studies. It’s also worth noting the importance of timeframe when presenting your case studies. In our experience, you should provide case studies from the last five years, no later if possible.

  1. Be prepared to provide qualifications

Relevant qualifications and accreditations are often required with any building contract. Building and construction sites can be hazardous environments and accidents do happen. You want to make sure your organisation is in keeping with health and safety regulations. You also need relevant accreditations and qualifications to demonstrate a safe worksite. These could include:

  • ISO 9001; 14001; 18001
  • BIM
  • SSIP
  • IOSH
  • Constructionline
  • CHAS
  • Subcontractor

  1. Prepare your social value responses

Social value is an important part of every government contract and proposal, no matter the industry. Social value now has a minimum weighting of 10% within any public sector contract. It can hold of a weight of up to 30% in some tenders so it’s not something to just brush over. The three main aspects you need to focus on and include are:

  • Environmental
  • Social
  • Economic

Your sustainable development goals should maximise and protect the social values and impacts mentioned above. Don’t be vague. Buyers want to see you making commitments that you can actually keep to in this section. For example:

  • The environmental considerations you will take to reduce waste and fight climate change.
  • How you’re creating new skills and jobs in order to tackle economic inequality.
  • The equal opportunity policies you implement within your organisation.

This section would be a good place to include your ISO 14001. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s also important to mention how your organisation supports COVID-19 recovery.

If you’ve tried the tips above but still aren’t having any luck in winning building contacts, we can help.

We offer bid writing services

Now you understand how to win building contracts in practice, but do you actually have the time it takes?

Enter our sister company, Hudson Succeed.

They have over 40 years bid writing experience and an 87% success rate. The team provides four levels of bid writing support to maximise your success. Whether you’re brand new to the tendering process or you’ve tendered before, they have a service tailored for every need:

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

Where can I find building contract opportunities?

So, now you know how to win building contract, you’re probably wondering where you can find such opportunities. You likely don’t have the time to trawl through thousands of websites every day. If only there was one convenient, central portal that manually uploaded live building contracts daily. Well, look no further than our Construction Tenders portal.

Our portal is an opportunity tracking platform where we source all the construction and building tenders throughout the UK. We manually upload them in one convenient place to save you countless hours so you can focus on your business.

Other benefits include of subscribing to Construction Tenders include:

  • Receiving daily updates of available tenders, direct to your inbox.
  • Access to all private and public sector opportunities in the UK.
  • The ability to filter building contracts opportunities by keyword, budget, location and more.
  • No reliance on unreliable CPV codes or algorithms. We manually upload each tender making sure that you have access to 100% of building tenders.
  • Access to your own Account Manager. They can answer any questions or queries you may have about the tendering process.
  • Discounted support from Hudson Succeed, our bid writing division.
  • 20-minutes of free consultancy every month with our bid experts.

Here are just a few examples of past building contracts we sourced recently:

Merchant Framework 2021-2025

EFFICIENCY EAST MIDLANDS LIMITED- East Midlands- Budget £90,000,000

16-11-2020

Supply and Delivery of Cycle Lane Defenders

Inverclyde Council- Wales- Budget: Undisclosed

09-10-2020

Pylon Footbridge Concrete Repairs

Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council- North East- Budget: Undisclosed

12-10-2020

Proposed New Performance Auditorium at Conc na Gaoithe, Chapel Street, Tulla, Co Clare for Ceoltas Ceoltoiri Eireann.

Tulla Comhaltas Development Committee- International- Budget: Undisclosed

19-10-2020

Bowmer and Kirkland – NUoP Phase 1 Early engagement / opportunity

Cambridgeshire District Councils- Eastern- Budget: Undisclosed

09-10-2020

Birmingham Municipal Housing Trust (BMHT) – Off-Site Manufactured Housing – Market Engagement

Birmingham City Council- West Midlands- Budget: Undisclosed

06-11-2020

Book a Demo with Construction Tenders

Book a free live demo of Construction Tenders today. As a client, you’ll receive a daily construction leads bulletin straight to your inbox when new building tenders are uploaded.

We actively source tenders for the following sub-sectors:

Contact us today and allow us to help you grow your business with Construction Tenders.

Bricklaying Tenders & Advice for SMEs

Posted on by John Hudson

How to Win Bricklaying Tenders as the Construction Industry ‘Bounces Back’ 

Bricklaying tenders are a gateway for growing your brickwork business. But is now a good time to grow as an SME, as we head into another National Lockdown?

At first glance, you may not think so. Coronavirus and lockdown restrictions had a significant impact on businesses in the construction industry earlier this year. In March, major construction projects ground to a halt across the country.

The fallout from these mass shutdowns continues to have an impact on the construction industry. As we enter a second National Lockdown, you’re probably wondering, will history repeat itself?

It’s understandable to be concerned about what the future of bricklaying looks like in 2020. What do the latest government restrictions mean for your sector? And how can you secure bricklaying tenders that are right for your business during a second National Lockdown?

Well, we’ve checked the stats with your bricklaying business in mind. Now is as good a time as any to win bricklaying tenders and grow your business. Here’s why – and how to do it.

What is the construction ‘bounce-back’?

Many industries are still in sharp decline due to coronavirus. It can feel like there’s nothing but bad news for businesses at the moment. But this simply isn’t true – the construction industry is back in growth-mode.

It’s been coined the construction ‘bounce-back’ as the industry, quite literally, rebuilds itself.

This summer, the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) reported that almost 50% of SME builders were enjoying an uptick in demand. This state-of-trade survey also specified that 40% expected their workload to increase further in Autumn.

Did this increase happen? In short – yes! Let’s look at this in more detail.

To measure the construction bounce-back, we can look at the PMI (Purchasing Managers’ Index) of the construction industry. This index summarises economic trends in the manufacturing and service sectors and shows whether market conditions are expanding or contracting. Ultimately, the PMI provides information about current and future business conditions to companies, analysts, and investors.

The Construction PMI in the UK shows the industry has bounced back and is operating at above-average levels:

  • As reported by the IHS Markit/CIPS UK, the UK Construction PMI hit 53.1 in October 2020. This comes after a 12-year average of 51.11 between 2008 and 2020, and an all-time low of 8.20 in April of 2020.
  • Construction companies report feeling optimistic towards their prospects for the next 12 months. In fact, business optimism has hit a 3-year high in the construction industry. As Markit Economics reported, there are high-hopes for economic recovery and an overall reduction in COVID-19 disruption going into 2021.
  • As the construction industry avoids shutdown during the second National Lockdown, business optimism is set to remain high for the sector. Build UK announced that the latest government restrictions will have no direct impact on their business or trading. Operations across all Build UK sites remain fully open to support the construction industry.
  • New orders in the construction sector are also seeing their highest increase since December 2015. This is largely due to delayed projects that were halted earlier in the year amid the initial COVID-19 crisis.

What does this all mean for bricklaying tenders?

All of this is good news for bricklayers. But it gets better:

Housebuilding was the best-performing area of all construction activity in October 2020, scoring a PMI of 62.4. You don’t need to be a consultant to see that’s a great figure. The speed of recovery for housebuilding has eased only slightly since September 2020. This means the bounce-back is showing very little signs of slowing as of November 2020.

This revival is due to pent up demand from stalled or cancelled projects. The boost also stems in part from the fact that housing market conditions have improved in recent months.

As these projects spring into action, they bring a surge of opportunities. Now is the time to source bricklaying tenders and grow your business.

How do I find bricklaying tenders during the bounce-back?

New opportunities in the sector are set to steadily increase as we enter 2021. So, how should you set about finding construction contracts effectively?

Make sure you’re using a portal that is specific to your industry. This will save you countless time trawling through irrelevant results when you could be growing your business.

Signing up to our Construction Tenders portal provides you with a service that is tailored to your needs from day one. Our opportunity trackers (humans, not robots!) manually search the latest bricklaying tender opportunities every day so you don’t have to. This means every result you see is specific to your sector and relevant to the services you offer. You’ll receive updates straight to your inbox.

Opportunities for bricklaying tenders may include:

  • Masonry and bricklaying work
  • Programme and Project Management
  • Renovation Works
  • Grout packers
  • Building and Maintenance Services
  • Training
  • Bricklaying health and safety consultancy

If you have any questions, your dedicated account manager will always be on hand to answer them.

How do I secure the perfect bricklaying tender?

Have you already found a bricklaying tender perfect for your organisation? Do you want to increase your chances of securing the tenders that are right for your business once you’ve found them?

There is a lot to consider when writing a bricklaying tender, especially now.

A key aspect of construction bids in today’s climate is the effective management of coronavirus. Many buyers will expect this to be considered within tender responses, especially now national restrictions are in place again. You must plan how you will analyse risks and communicate risk management strategies to your workforce.

National restrictions impact how construction sites operate. Always refer to the latest government guidance when planning your bricklaying tender response. You may need to consider:

  • Planning your approach in advance
  • Strategically reducing delivery frequencies
  • Minimising contact between people
  • Managing staff schedules differently.

Our Hudson Succeed division provides writing support and professional consultation to help you maximise your chances of success. Our dedicated team of bid writers have extensive experience delivering excellent tenders with an 87% success rate.

Whether you are tendering for the first time or have tendered before, we have a service suitable for you. We tailor each service to your needs through the following tender packages:

Get in touch with Construction Tenders

Book a free live demo of Construction Tenders today. Clients receive a daily bulletin with construction leads straight to their inbox when new tenders are uploaded. The bulletin contains all the relevant construction opportunities that we have sourced that day.

Below are previous bricklaying tenders sourced on our portal:

Early Market Engagement Questionnaire – Environmental Improvement Works

Believe housing- North East- Budget: Undisclosed

31-07-2020

Environmental Facilities Work To 187 Properties Oakridge Sketty, Swansea

City and County of Swansea- Wales- Budget: Undisclosed

17-07-2020

Construction of a replacement retaining wall – Belmont, Dreemskerry Road, Maughold

Isle of Man Government- International- Budget: Undisclosed

25-06-2020

Boundary Wall – Clare Court (v2)

Stroud District Council- South West- Budget: Undisclosed

08-07-2020

Take Down and Rebuild Defective Retaining Wall at Parwich Primary School, The Square, Parwich, Ashbourne

Derbyshire County Council- East Midlands- Budget: Undisclosed

11-06-2020

We actively source tenders for the following sub-sectors:

Contact us today and allow us to help you grow your business with Construction Tenders.

Concrete Tenders and the Construction Industry

Posted on by John Hudson

Concrete Tenders and the Construction Industry

Great news – the construction industry is brimming with complex concrete tenders. This means that there is a wide range of construction contracts, suitable for both small and large organisations.

Additionally, the concrete industry is rapidly evolving. Buyers and suppliers must consider innovations, sustainable growth and their supply chains.

So what kind of concrete tenders might you find?

Possibilities include:

  • Kerbs and sleepers
  • Cement supply
  • Building material supply
  • Aggregates and ready mixed concrete
  • Concrete removal
  • Repairs and remedial works
  • Full refurbishments
  • Car park repairs

Opportunities also exist for concrete sub-categories such as:

  • Aggregates
  • Ready-made concrete
  • Rebar
  • Concrete blocks
  • Pre-cast concretes
  • Cement materials
  • Admixtures
  • Mortar

Categories that concrete tenders apply to can both public and private sector buyers. Opportunities to apply for concrete tenders exist in:

  • Retail and commercial spaces
  • Residential sites
  • Education and healthcare sites
  • Commercial sites and industrial buildings
  • Museums and public offices

The list really does go on. The concrete industry is rapidly expanding, and with that – tendering opportunities.

Broadly speaking, public sector buyers will advertise more framework tenders than private sector buyers. That does not mean to say that the public sector is short of single contract concrete tenders. Quite the opposite. Concrete tenders remain a high demand service provision across the changing urban landscape.

CDM 2015

On any concrete tenders project, you may be required to work with a range of other contractors. For example, architects, quantity surveyors, and other material suppliers.

Working with other stakeholders, you must be able to demonstrate your ability to collaborate, manage contracts, and create mobilisation plans which will effectively deliver the work.

Familiarity with CDM 2015 is also essential for many concrete construction projects. More formally named the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, contractors must now create a construction plan. Dependent on the scale of work involved, contractors may also need to inform relevant regulatory bodies, like HSE.

For large-scale tenders, a principal contractor will be assigned to the contract. Their responsibility is to effectively manage a project’s construction phase, ensuring it is streamlined, organised and compliant with legislation.

Other projects may require you to be familiar with a JCT contract in a non-principal contractor capacity. Familiarity with CDM regulations and JCT contracts are therefore essential in the concrete tendering process. It may sound obvious, but If you have JCT contract experience, your case studies are invaluable here.

It’s worth building up a bank of your key experience. A useful approach here could be to spend time creating a JCT experience spreadsheet. This could detail aspects including:

  • Project title and client;
  • Location;
  • Contract dates and values;
  • Contract management team (such as Contract Manager, Site Manager and Project Manager);
  • JCT specifics;
  • A short summary of your organisation’s roles and responsibilities;
  • The contract brief, with details such as budget and specification;
  • Details of the site, such as warehouse, hotel, etc.;
  • A summary of your specific working practices and methods;
  • Key referee contact details;
  • Any other added value which you provided to the project

This spreadsheet will support your case study development. It will also enable you to quickly gather all contract facts and figures from one place. The spreadsheet approach can save you time and reduce the number of back-and-forth emails between colleagues.

BIM

An understanding of Building Information Modelling (BIM) can be beneficial on some concrete tenders. This is because BIM facilitates better information sharing and data between parties involved in a project’s design and construction. Therefore, if you choose to tender as a concrete manufacturer, having product data sheets ready can be beneficial.

This data can be used to support BIM processes. Additionally, some buyers may require BIM as a specification requirement. Contributing to BIM data will also help deliver more effective sustainable processes during construction design. Therefore, the benefits of BIM to concrete tenders are:

  • That accurate data modelling is provided, which benefits all project contributors;
  • It can model the potential environmental and embodied carbon effect of concrete products and materials;
  • It can benefit BREEAM sustainability assessments.

Concrete and environmental considerations

Concrete is heavily linked to carbon, sustainability, and responsible sourcing processes. Within the tendering process, buyers may request concrete-specific standards and codes. These codes are standards for thermal performance, environmental impact, reinforcements, aggregates and more.

As a supplier, you should be familiar with standards and codes such as:  

  • Thermal Performance: Part L1A 2013
  • Target Fabric Energy Efficiency rates (TFEE)
  • BS EN 1992, Eurocode 2: Design of concrete structures
  • BS 8297: 2017 Design, manufacture and installation of architectural precast concrete cladding code of practice
  • BS EN 206: 2013 +A1:2016 – Concrete – specification, performance, production and conformity
  • BS 8500-2:2015+A2:2019 – Concrete – specifying and guidance for the specifier
  • BS EN 197-1:2011 – Composition, specification and conformity criteria for common cements.
  • BS EN 10080:2005 – Steel for the reinforcement of concrete – Weldable reinforcing steel – General
  • BES 6001 – Responsible sourcing of construction products

The above list is dependent on the type of service and material supplied. The key point here is ensure that your organisation is fully up-to-date with industry requirements. Not only this – you must be able to demonstrate these requirements.

You can do this through evidence, case studies, sample documents, training records, and similar. As a golden rule, the more specific and relevant your evidence is, the better.

PAS 91 

The PAS 91 is often essential to complete in construction bids. It is a standardised pre-qualification questionnaire for the construction industry. The PAS 91 is a comprehensive questionnaire which requests supplier information about:

  • Essential company and contact information
  • The company’s financial standing
  • Insurances in place
  • Business standing – verifying the organisation and staff integrity
  • Health and Safety policies

Whilst the PAS 91 is a very rigorous questionnaire, it does offer exemptions if you have specific accreditations. This is because those accreditations already demonstrate you have the required criteria. Certifications and memberships that may gain you an exemption to certain PAS 91 question responses include:

  • ISO 18001 International Health and Safety Management systems accreditation
  • Safety Schemes in Procurement (SSIP) membership
  • ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems accreditation
  • ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems accreditation

That is not to say that having these accreditations are essential to completing a PAS 91 questionnaire. It does however make the process a lot simpler! The reason is that these certifications save time and effort during the sometimes complex tendering process.

Bigger organisations who tender frequently would benefit from having these accreditations in place. Or, to be working towards accreditation.

There is a lot of cost, time and planning involved in becoming accredited. Smaller organisations must weigh up the benefits of each accreditation to the type of work they will tender for. Broadly speaking, having any level of ISO Quality Management Accreditation will benefit your organisation and the concrete tendering process.

The reason is that health and safety, quality and environmental quality management systems are organisation-wide processes. They demonstrate that you have processes, procedures and systems in place to consistently deliver a standard. These accreditations will enable you to discuss persuasively why your organisation is best placed to deliver concrete tenders.

To prepare for ISO accreditation requires a thorough review (and sometimes upheaval) of organisational processes. Careful consideration must be given to the end goal. This means not only thinking about accreditation but also that planning must be projected forward to maintaining those ISO management systems. This can be through people, planning, policies, training, company ethos, and documentation, for example.

Health & Safety 

As with any construction project, health and safety is absolutely paramount. When preparing concrete tenders, due consideration should be given to risk assessments, COSHH, RIDDOR and PPE.

Organisations must consider:

  • All employees
  • Members of the public
  • Vulnerable workers
  • Site visitors

Risks present during any concrete works may include:

  • Working at height
  • Manual handling
  • Machinery, plant and equipment
  • Harmful substances
  • Noise
  • Slips and falls

Companies are now expected to manage coronavirus risk. These essentially come down to managing risk in various capacities. The key points here are to identify, assess and control risks. Essential to this process is to document your findings and propose mitigation strategies.

How can we help you with your next concrete tender? Contact us today to find out more. We offer a full range of service which can improve your organisation’s potential.

At Hudson, we also provide a dedicated portal, Construction Tenders. On this portal, you can find the most relevant construction leads and up-to-date concrete tenders across the UK and further afield.

Signing up, you will receive the following benefits which will support your tendering efforts:

  • A dedicated Account Manager, who will answer your tendering queries;
  • Daily new tenders, relevant to you, direct to your inbox;
  • You can search this sector-specific portal using filters that you need. No more scouring across lots of different websites for relevant tenders. We have all construction contracts in the UK right here on one easy portal;
  • We don’t use computer algorithms to find concrete tenders, but dedicated Opportunity Trackers. This Opportunity Tracking team manually do all of the hard work for you;
  • Ultimately, our construction portal will save you time, money and effort. So what are you waiting for? Contact us today, to find your next ideal concrete tendering opportunity.

Get in Touch with Construction Tenders:

Sign up to Construction Tenders today and receive a daily bulletin straight to your inbox, containing all relevant small construction tenders uploaded that day.

Below are past concrete tenders sourced on our portal:

Concrete Survey

NHS South West – Acutes- South West- Budget: £70,000

Contractor Services for Steel and Concrete Repairs for Kingsway Fan Grill Replacement and Associated Works

Merseytravel- North West- Budget: Undisclosed

Framework Agreement for the Supply of Ready Mixed Concrete

City & County of Swansea- Wales- Budget: Undisclosed

Kirkby Wharfe New – Concrete Saddle

North Yorkshire County Council- Yorkshire and Humber- Budget: Undisclosed

Pre-cast Concrete L-Shape Retaining Walls

SCS JV- London- Budget: £2,500,000

This includes the following:

Further Support

The construction industry has a wide range of  Concrete Tenders on offer. If you need support in your tendering efforts, contact us today.