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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.

The Construction Talent Retention Scheme – Protecting workers in Construction

Posted on by John Hudson

The Construction Talent Retention Scheme – Everything you need to know

The Construction Talent Retention Scheme was announced by Chancellor of the exchequer, Rishi Sunak. The aim of the scheme is to protect workers in the construction industry as the UK begins to rebuild itself and emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Co-Chair of the Construction Leadership Council (CLC), Andy Mitchell said: “This is a great example of what we can achieve when we work collaboratively with government and we look forward to continuing in this spirit when the proposals and recommendations of our broader Roadmap to Recovery are published. In the meantime, we will work with our members and industry stakeholders to encourage the scheme’s use and success.”

How will the scheme work?

The Construction Talent Retention Scheme is due to launch, formally, later this month. The scheme will be in the form of an online portal that will work to protect those who work in the construction industry. The portal will do this in the following ways;

  • Advertising vacancies

Companies can use the portal to advertise open vacancies and employ workers that may be at risk of redundancy.

  • Help construction projects

The portal will help to place at-risk workers on construction projects to prevent a loss of talent in the sector.

  • Inter-trading with talent

The Construction Talent Retention Scheme system will also allow businesses to “loan” workers to other companies who can utilise their skills.

  • Transfer workers into construction

The system will aim to help workers from different industries to transfer to the construction sector. This means that workers who have lost jobs, or who are at risk of being made redundant, will have a route into a new career.

The foundations

The foundations of the Construction Talent Retention Scheme are based on a tried and tested model. A similar scheme has been used previously to safeguard workers in the aerospace and automotive industries.

The Chief Executive for the Association for Consultancy and Engineering, Hannah Vickers said: “This is a proven solution with a strong track-record in other sectors, cross-industry support and pledges from our leading employers. It is vital we keep the skills in our sector to avoid a talent drain and is the only way we will be able to ramp-up activity to lead the recovery of the wider economy and deliver growth through new buildings and infrastructure.”

Funding for the scheme has been secured until the end of the financial year. The platform will be free for any organisation to use.

Finding construction contracts

Are you currently looking for construction contracts in your field? Our Construction Tenders portal takes the headache out of the sourcing process.

Finding new contract opportunities is a full-time job. We know because we have a dedicated team who do this daily to ensure your business never misses a construction lead.

Below are previous construction tenders sourced on our portal:

West Thames College – M & E Services Tender

West Thames College- London- Budget: Undisclosed

UPVC Guttering, Soffits, Fascias and Accessories

Luton Council- Eastern- Budget: Undisclosed

Replacement or Repair of Existing Over Door Canopies

Raven Housing Trust Limited- South East- Budget: Undisclosed

Quick Quote – Ronaldsway Airport Fire Station Slipway Refurbishment

Isle of Man Government- International- Budget: Undisclosed

Quick Quote – Castletown Harbour – Light Column Replacement

Isle of Man Government- International- Budget: Undisclosed

Book a free live demo to tour the system and see how the portal can help your construction business.

We source tenders for services including;

Glass Tenders

Posted on by John Hudson

All you need to know about glass tenders

Are you wondering where to begin with bidding for glass tenders? Look no further. In this blog, we have prepared an introduction to tendering for these contracts and our tips for approaching your response.

Glass tenders could be seeking to procure a variety of services:

  • Window replacements;
  • Window installation;
  • Supply of glass windows/panels;
  • Automatic door installation.

Those advertising for public glass tenders could be councils, universities or housing associations. Private tenders could be from a wide range of organisations and could require glass services on any type of building all across the country.

Glass tenders may appear in a variety of contract formats. They could be:

  • Single supplier contracts. The most economically advantageous tender will see success and have total oversight and responsibility for the scope of the requirements.
  • Framework agreements. These contracts result in an approved supplier list with multiple successful tenderers. Suppliers may then be asked to “call off” for works, undergoing another competition to win certain jobs.
  • Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPS). Similar to framework agreements, these run for extended periods of time. But suppliers can be added to the system as soon as they are approved, unlike after the deadline of a framework agreement. You will then be called off for certain works.

Glass tender documentation

By and large, the makeup of the tender documentation for glass tenders will remain standardised across buyers and contract types within the construction industry. Glass tenders may include:

A PAS 91

This is a standardised Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) for construction bids which is used nationally. You will usually have to complete these instead of another type of PQQ.

These ensure that buyers engage companies which are safe and ethical – particularly important in the construction industry.

PAS 91s have the same structure every time: hence being standardised. The following sections feature in a PAS 91:

  • Company structure and details;
    • Financial data;
    • Insurances;
    • Environmental management;
    • Quality management;
    • Equal opportunities and diversity;
    • Project-specific questions.

If this sounds like your worst nightmare – don’t worry. Firstly, because there are accreditations you can possess which exempt you from certain sections of a PAS 91. For example:

  • ISO 14001 exempts you from answering the Environmental Management section;
    • ISO 9001 exempts you from answering the Quality Management section;
    • CHAS or OHASAS 18001 exempts you from answering the Health and Safety section;
    • Constructionline Gold exempts you from the majority of questions asked.

Constructionline Bronze and Silver will exempt you from some sections too. It’s worth looking into obtaining these accreditations as it will streamline your bidding for glass tenders.

Secondly, our team at Hudson Succeed can help you if the idea of a PAS 91 fills you with dread. We can take it off your hands!

Method statements

It is likely that you will have to respond to some method statements as part of glass tender responses. These will appear further down in the tender documentation. These method statements may cover the following subjects:

  • Service delivery plan. How will you deliver the requirements within the specification? What equipment and resources will you use? How long will you allocate to each task?
    • Contract mobilisation. Buyers might want to know your processes for how you will ensure that the contract is ready to commence on the stipulated date. Activities to complete here may entail:
      • Any necessary recruitment;
      • Additional training;
      • Ordering of equipment and/or materials;
      • Internal and external meetings;

It may be beneficial here to include a mobilisation plan – either a table within the response document or a Gantt chart as an appendix. This shows the timescales within which you will complete the tasks to be ready for the contract commencement date.

  • Your staff. Here, it may be applicable to list your proposed project team, as well as their experience and qualifications. Staff development may also be relevant in this question. Points to cover could include what training staff must undergo – both induction and ongoing.
    • Health and Safety. Such questions may cover risk management, approach to Health and Safety or live site management. These types of questions are seeking to ascertain how you maintain and promote Health and Safety at the sites you work at. Think training, risk assessments, Health and Safety policies and suitably qualified Site Managers.
    • Quality assurance. Achieving zero defects, maintaining a skilled workforce, obtaining high-standard materials, monitoring your supply chain. These factors all contribute to delivering a high-quality service and you may have to demonstrate how you provide this calibre of service.
    • Environmental considerations. How do you minimise the impact of your service on the environment? This may be your approach to vehicle use, your choice of suppliers or recycling initiatives, to name a few.

A pricing schedule

Glass tenders will certainly include a pricing schedule. Your success will be determined by a combination of your pricing and method statement scores. It’s important to think carefully about your pricing to ensure that you fill in all fields with appropriate rates. Don’t insert figures that are so low you’ll be making a loss but do price your services competitively to give yourself the best chance at success.

Hudson Succeed’s tips

We’ve included a handy little guide here to advise you when bidding for construction contracts. Here are some things we suggest you consider when preparing your response:

1. Get specific.

This is easier said than done. What this means in practice is:

  • Naming things – people responsible for tasks, systems used, frequencies of tasks. This could be the brand of glass you’ll use or its specific properties and features. The more specific you are, the more concrete your proposals and therefore the more confidence you instil in the buyer.
  • Drilling down on procedures and approaches. Assume that the buyer knows nothing about how you go about delivering your service. Because they don’t. Spell things out for them and ensure that you’ve described processes in full that flows logically. Their only experience of your provision is your responses, so these need to be carefully crafted.

You’ll know that your industry has many regulations and best practice guidelines to adhere to. Demonstrate how you adhere to these where appropriate, mentioning specific actions or processes which ensure compliance.

2. Evidence, evidence, evidence.

As part of the PAS 91, you will have to attach various policies if you are not exempt from answering certain sections. Even if you do, we recommend that you refer to written policies and procedures throughout your method statements and attach them as evidence. When you centre your points in the method statements around your company documentation, you strengthen your response. Think of what you can attach to enhance the quality of your method statements. To get you started, we’ve come up with a few examples:

  • A Health and Safety Policy;
  • A sample risk assessment or RAMS;
  • A Gantt chart – to support a question about mobilisation;
  • A Quality Assurance Policy;
  • An Environmental Policy.

3. Break down the question.

In the construction industry, often a question will be asked about an overarching theme such as “risk” or “defects”. It’s important to break this down into sections. This enables you to ensure you cover everything the buyer may want to know on this subject.

Another benefit of breaking down the question is it keeps you on topic and gives you direction. Creating subheadings when responding to method statements focuses your content and stops you from going on a tangent. This will maximise your quality score as well as tailoring responses to the buyer’s requirements.

It’s also easy to identify where other members of your team could feed into the response. Breaking down the question will highlight knowledge gaps – capitalise upon other team members’ expertise to fill these and enhance your method statements.

Get in Touch: 

Sign up to Construction Tenders today and receive a daily construction leads bulletin straight to your inbox, containing all relevant small construction tenders uploaded that day. We source construction tenders from thousands of websites across the UK. Filter the result by location, keyword, budget and more. This saves you even more time when looking for tendering opportunities for your business. 

Below are some previous glass tenders that we’ve sourced on our portal:

Disposal of Double-Glazing Glass and Associated Products

East Riding of Yorkshire- Yorkshire and Humber- Budget: Undisclosed

09-12-2020

Replacement of the Glass Frontage of the Guildhall, Chard

Chard Town Council- South West- Budget: £60,000

01-12-2020

Supply of Automotive Glass to the UK Ministry of Defence

Ministry of Defence, Land Equipment, Operational Support Vehicle Programme (OSVP)- South West- Budget: £1,600,000

04-12-2020

Supply of Glass and Glazing Sundries

Derbyshire County Council- East Midlands- Budget: Undisclosed

12-02-2021

The Supply of Ballistic Glass Replacement Units to NATO STANAG 4659 Levels

Defence Forces Ireland- International- Budget: £750,000

05-02-2021

Need help writing your next tender?

If you don’t have the resources or time to write a winning bid, why not outsource it? Our sister company, Hudson Succeed, boasts an 87% success rate and has over 60 years of collective bidding experience. They offer four bid writing support packages to help you on the path to success. Whether you’re new to tendering, or simply need someone to proof your written response before you submit – we can help.

Tender Ready

Our Tender Ready programme is designed for those who have never tendered before. This 4-week programme works with you to ensure you have everything in place to tender successfully.

Tender Improvement

Tender Improvement can help if you’re already tendering but aren’t seeing success from your current efforts. Our Bid Writers will assess your previous submissions and supporting documents. They’ll give you feedback and guidance on how to improve, helping you to secure your next structural engineering tender.

Tender Mentor

If you’ve written a tender and need someone to proofread it – Tender Mentor is for you. A Bid Writer will double-check it’s in line with the specification and free of any grammar or spelling mistakes.

Tender Writing

If you’ve found the perfect tender but don’t know where to start – we can help. Send the specification over to us and our Bid Team will do the rest. They’ll let you know what they need from you and provide you with a full breakdown. They’ll even submit it on your behalf, leaving you more time to focus on your business.

Get in touch to find out more information.

We actively source tenders for the following sub-sectors:

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