Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 15 Sept 2026, 11:39 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Innovative Solids Separation Technologies for Wastewater Treatment

Authority: United Utilities Water Limited (Public body)

GoodsBelow thresholdUtilitiesSME suitable
Planned pipeline valueValue not publishedpipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 1 yrends 1 Dec 2027 · starts 1 Dec 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

United Utilities is seeking information from suppliers offering innovative solids separation technologies for wastewater treatment applications. We are particularly interested in solutions that use centrifugal, cyclonic or vortex-based separation principles to remove suspended solids from wastewater streams without reliance on conventional filtration media, membranes, cloth filters or similar physical filtration barriers.

CPV: Sewage plant equipment · Sewage treatment services · Sludge-processing equipment

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1Planned 1 yrSME

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

How United Utilities Water Limited buys Construction works for plants, mining and manufacturing and for buildings relating to the oil and gas industry (CPV 4525), and who usually turns up

United Utilities Water Limited’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Construction works for plants, mining and manufacturing and for buildings relating to the oil and gas industry (CPV 4525) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

How often do SMEs win?
i

How often small and medium firms win.

Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.

The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 3 of 17 known-size awards · market: CPV 4525 · North West England, n=16
18%75%

Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.

How often do local suppliers win?
i

How often local firms win similar work.

Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.

Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered. The market figure counts awards delivered in North West England.

A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 16 of 30 known-location awards · market: CPV 4525 · North West England, n=16
53%38%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.

How long to a decision?
i

How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.

Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.

Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: no decision dates published · market: CPV 4525 · UK-wide, n=17
—33 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 33 days of the bid deadline.

How often single-bid or direct?
i

How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.

Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.

Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.

Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: at least 39 of 41 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 4525 · North West England, n=25
95%60%

Direct awards or one recorded bid are common here. Check the route before spending time on a bid.

How many bids did past lots attract?

i

How many bids past lots received.

Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.

Past bids do not predict this tender.

Last 36 months.

This buyerNo bid counts published
The market12 lots with bid counts · CPV 4525 · UK-wide
17% had one bid
Market · select a colour for counts
1 bid17%
Market: 2 of 12 lots with published bid counts.
2–333%
Market: 4 of 12 lots with published bid counts.
4–617%
Market: 2 of 12 lots with published bid counts.
7+33%
Market: 4 of 12 lots with published bid counts.

How did awards compare with estimates?

i

Where winning prices landed against estimates.

Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.

Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.

Last 36 months.

This buyerToo few to chart: 1 lot with estimate and award, 5 needed · all categories
The market11 lots with estimate and award · CPV 4525 · UK-wide
55% below estimate
Market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate55%
Market: 6 of 11 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%27%
Market: 3 of 11 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate18%
Market: 2 of 11 lots with an estimate and award.
2

Assess each lot
i

What past awards tell you about each lot.

See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.

No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.

Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list

Lot #1CPV 452512 monthsSME suitableEstimate not published
Expected competition
i

How many bids this lot may attract.

The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.

Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 251 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet10% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 251 similar lots
1 bid10%
26 of 251 similar past lots received 1 bid (10%).
2–327%
67 of 251 similar past lots received 2–3 (27%).
4–628%
71 of 251 similar past lots received 4–6 (28%).
7+35%
87 of 251 similar past lots received 7+ (35%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 5 bids.
Commercial price forecast
i

Where the award price may land.

The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.

No comparable awards for this lot yet.

A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.

—Estimate not published
The buyer published no estimate for this lot, so there is nothing to forecast against. A price prediction here would be a number about a number we do not have.

Who has supplied this buyer on similar work?
i

Who has done similar work for this buyer.

Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.

A past supplier may not bid again.

No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.

Who could compete for this lot?
i

Who could compete for this lot?

Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.

None is confirmed as a bidder.

Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.

About this data
  • Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
  • Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
  • Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
  • Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record
Legal basis
UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
Procurement category
Goods
Notice status
Planned procurement
Procurement threshold
Below threshold
Regulatory regime
Utilities
Commercial structure
Stand-alone contract (no framework)
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
15 Sept 2026, 11:39 BST
Last source update
15 Sept 2026, 11:39 BST
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-087223
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Sewage plant equipmentSewage treatment servicesSludge-processing equipment
Delivery area
North West (UKD)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06f9ee Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

15 Sept 2026 → 1 Dec 2026 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published42 days ago
    15 Sept 2026, 11:39 BST
  2. Market engagement21 days ago
    7 Oct 2026, 00:59 BST

    Suppliers wishing to respond should contact Harry East requesting a copy of the question set.

    Email address: Harry.east@uuplc.co.uk

  3. Today
    28 Oct 2026
  4. Contract startsin 33 days
    1 Dec 2026

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    15 Sept 2026, 11:39 BST
    UK2

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Pipeline notice
Awards (0)
No award published
Contracts (0)
No contract published
Bid statistics
No aggregate bid statistics published

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

UNITED UTILITIES WATER LIMITED

Contracting authorityPrivate utility GB-COH: 02366678 · GB-PPON: PVVB-5589-BWHX Haweswater House, Lingley Green Avenue, Great Sankey, North West, WA5 3LPContact name, email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure