Official UK procurement notice
Lancaster Canal Quarter: Coopers Fields - Affordable Housing Development Opportunity Site
Authority: Lancaster City Council (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionLancaster City Council is seeking to appoint a preferred housing developer partner to assist in delivering its housing regeneration ambitions for a specific city council owned site designated for early release within the Lancaster Canal Quarter regeneration area.
The council has issued a Tender Notice and Invitation to Participate (ITP) for parties interested in taking forward the 0.9ha Coopers Fields site to deliver a mix of affordable and social housing in line with its adopted objectives. The council is particularly interested to hear from Registered Providers (RPs), developers with registered provider status in their business group, those with demonstrable capacity to partner with RPs, or those who are interested and may not fit in the above categories but would still be capable of delivering the same outcomes.
The regeneration of the Canal Quarter area is critical to enhancing Lancaster’s role as a sub-regional centre and boosting its housing, commercial, cultural and leisure offer. Our ambitious vision is for a vibrant, sustainable and active Canal Quarter, integrated with the Lancaster Canal and served by areas of new public open space. A Quarter where contemporary development and hidden heritage can combine to create a diverse residential, commercial, cultural and recreational neighbourhood.
- Not divided into lots: The project comprises a single site for redevelopment.
- How the procedure runs: Following Pre-Market Engagement (054546-2025), the selected process aims to progressively develop a solution with suppliers that best meets the council’s requirements. A Competitive Flexible with Dialogue approach has been selected due to the development’s technical, legal and financial complexity. The council aims to run an effective and efficient process that seeks to build the solution stage by stage to minimise the time taken by the process and both the suppliers and council effort and costs. This participatory approach enables the development proposals and the contract terms to be collaboratively developed and optimised in a way that a more traditional procurement could not achieve. The procurement stages are as follows: Stage 1 - Invitation to Participate (ITP). Completion of Procurement Specific Questionnaire and Supplementary Questions. This will be followed by an officer assessment and down selection to a maximum of 5no. suppliers. Stage 2 - Invitation to Submit Outline Tender (ITSOT). Tenderers will be require to submit their outline proposals and agree to the draft legal agreements. This will be followed by an officer assessment and down selection to a maximum of 3no. tenderers. Stage 3 - Invitation to Participate in Dialogue (ITPD). Tenderers will be able to gain feedback on their outline proposal and review and progress commercial and legal matters. Tenderers will have the option to pursue a pre-planning application protocol. Stage 4 - Invitation to Submit Final Tenders (ITSFT) - Tenderers will be invited to submit final proposals and accept final draft legal agreements.
CPV: Architectural, construction, engineering and inspection services · Real estate services · Site preparation work · Works for complete or part construction and civil engineering work
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · value publishedLot #1Published value£36,000,000
- Technical & professional ability
As per the Invitation to Participate documents issued on the Chest - ref. DN812408.
What it takes to wini
How this buyer will score bids.
The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).
Evaluation split and conditions of participation as published; the tender pack may add morei
How this buyer will score bids.
The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).
Published sub-criteria (1)
- PSQ / SQ - Legal, Financial and Technical Capabilty and Experience: 100%
Published award criteria (1)
- PSQ / SQ - Legal, Financial and Technical Capabilty and Experience: As per the Invitation to Participate documents issued on the Chest - ref. DN812408. Criteria for future stages will be advised to qualifying suppliers.
- Technical & professional ability
As per the Invitation to Participate documents issued on the Chest - ref. DN812408.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Competitive flexible procedure
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Works
- Notice status
- Closed
- Procurement threshold
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 20 Apr 2026, 14:50 BST
- Last source update
- 20 Apr 2026, 14:50 BST
- Award evaluation window
- Submission end – 1 Dec 2026
- Authority reference
DN812408- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-035706- Latest notice
- Tender notice (UK4)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-068681Find a Tender- Contract terms summary
As per the documents issued on the Chest.
- How it runs
Following Pre-Market Engagement (054546-2025), the selected process aims to progressively develop a solution with suppliers that best meets the council’s requirements. A Competitive Flexible with Dialogue approach has been selected due to the development’s technical, legal and financial complexity. The council aims to run an effective and efficient process that seeks to build the solution stage by stage to minimise the time taken by the process and both the suppliers and council effort and costs. This participatory approach enables the development proposals and the contract terms to be collaboratively developed and optimised in a way that a more traditional procurement could not achieve. The procurement stages are as follows:
Stage 1 - Invitation to Participate (ITP). Completion of Procurement Specific Questionnaire and Supplementary Questions. This will be followed by an officer assessment and down selection to a maximum of 5no. suppliers.
Stage 2 - Invitation to Submit Outline Tender (ITSOT). Tenderers will be require to submit their outline proposals and agree to the draft legal agreements. This will be followed by an officer assessment and down selection to a maximum of 3no. tenderers.
Stage 3 - Invitation to Participate in Dialogue (ITPD). Tenderers will be able to gain feedback on their outline proposal and review and progress commercial and legal matters. Tenderers will have the option to pursue a pre-planning application protocol.
Stage 4 - Invitation to Submit Final Tenders (ITSFT) - Tenderers will be invited to submit final proposals and accept final draft legal agreements.
How it was run
Official notice- Requests to participate (first stage)
- 18 May 2026, 12:00 BST
- Submission deadline
- 18 May 2026, 12:00 BST
- Clarification deadline
- 11 May 2026, 12:00 BST
- Submission channel
- Official e-sourcing portal
- Electronic submission
- Allowed
- Accepted languages
- en
The Invitation to Participate (ITP) in this Competitive Flexible procedure is available on the Proactis ProContract web portal 'The Chest'. Interested parties who meet the criteria above, are invited to download the relevant information and engage with this invitation by:
- Going to procontract.due-north.com/Opportunities ↗
- Select 'Lancaster City Council' from the Organisation list
- Search for Project ref. DN812408 or title 'Lancaster Canal Quarter: Coopers Fields Affordable Housing Site'
- Select 'express interest in this opportunity'.
- Download the ITP material and return the completed Procurement Specific Questionnaire and Supplementary Questions Response Form using the forms provided together with details of relevant examples by the deadline date.
The deadline for responses is 12:00 Monday 18th May 2026.
Timeline
20 Apr 2026 → 1 Feb 2027 · 5 dates- Tender notice published191 days ago20 Apr 2026, 14:50 BST
- Clarification questions by170 days ago11 May 2026, 12:00 BST
- Submission deadline163 days ago18 May 2026, 12:00 BST
- Today28 Oct 2026
- Award decision expected byin 34 days1 Dec 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Contract startsin 95 days1 Feb 2027
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Tender notice published20 Apr 2026, 14:50 BSTUK4
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Official documents & specifications (3)
Official links; attachments are not copiedTender pack and attachments
Notices published for this procedure
- Tender notice Tender notice on Find a Tender