Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 9 Oct 2026, 12:05 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Pre- Market Engagement- Commercial & Mixed Use Development Business Case Consultancy

Authority: West Midlands Combined Authority (Local council)

ServicesAbove thresholdSME suitableVCSE suitable
Planned pipeline valueValue not publishedpipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 2 Nov 2026from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 6 moends 30 Jun 2027 · up to 31 Aug 2027 with extensions · starts 4 Jan 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Pre- Market Engagement- Commercial & Mixed Use Development Business Case Consultancy

Dear Supplier

West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) are looking to complete a Pre-Market Engagement (PME) to gather information from the market around Commercial & Mixed Use Development Business Case Consultancy.

The questionnaire is available at this link: forms.cloud.microsoft/e/YjJHgMj75h ↗

PLEASE NOTE – This is an information gathering exercise rather than a call for competition and therefore publication or response does not commit WMCA or respondents to a future procurement, nor provide any process exemptions or preferential treatment to any parties expressing an interest.

Please also note that this is not a formal PQQ or expression of interest in a tender exercise. This Pre-Market Engagement is to be used purely by WMCA to gather information.

Your responses to this questionnaire will NOT be scored or evaluated in any way and will be used purely for information purposes by WMCA.

WMCA will not be liable for costs incurred by any interested party participating in this exercise.

Please complete your response at this link:

forms.cloud.microsoft/e/YjJHgMj75h ↗

Deadline: Can you please complete this PME questionnaire by Monday 19th October 2026 at 12pm.

We look forward to receiving your responses.

CPV: Building consultancy services · Business and management consultancy and related services · Construction consultancy services · Development services of real estate · Financial management consultancy services · General management consultancy services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published

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

How West Midlands Combined Authority buys Consultative engineering and construction services (CPV 7131), and who usually turns up

West Midlands Combined Authority’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: Consultative engineering and construction services (CPV 7131) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bid
This buyerWest Midlands Combined Authority · division 71
What to do with it
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: 15 of 41 known-size awards · market: CPV 7131 · UK-wide, n=1,207
37%56%

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.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 15 of 45 known-location awards · market: CPV 7131 · UK-wide, n=1,161
33%51%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered outside 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 7131 · UK-wide, n=227
—48 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 48 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 29 of 54 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 7131 · UK-wide, n=1,682
54%42%

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 buyer24 lots with bid counts · all categories
17% had one bid
The market453 lots with bid counts · CPV 7131 · UK-wide
14% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid17% / 14%
Buyer: 4 of 24 lots with published bid counts. Market: 64 of 453 lots with published bid counts.
2–325% / 23%
Buyer: 6 of 24 lots with published bid counts. Market: 106 of 453 lots with published bid counts.
4–650% / 29%
Buyer: 12 of 24 lots with published bid counts. Market: 133 of 453 lots with published bid counts.
7+8% / 33%
Buyer: 2 of 24 lots with published bid counts. Market: 150 of 453 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 buyer15 lots with estimate and award · all categories
33% below estimate
The market319 lots with estimate and award · CPV 7131 · UK-wide
42% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate33% / 42%
Buyer: 5 of 15 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 134 of 319 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%47% / 43%
Buyer: 7 of 15 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 136 of 319 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate20% / 15%
Buyer: 3 of 15 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 49 of 319 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 71316 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 453 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet14% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 453 similar lots
1 bid14%
64 of 453 similar past lots received 1 bid (14%).
2–323%
106 of 453 similar past lots received 2–3 (23%).
4–629%
133 of 453 similar past lots received 4–6 (29%).
7+33%
150 of 453 similar past lots received 7+ (33%).
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
Services
Notice status
Planned procurement
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
9 Oct 2026, 12:05 BST
Last source update
9 Oct 2026, 12:05 BST
Authority reference
project_1264
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-095613
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Building consultancy servicesBusiness and management consultancy and related servicesConstruction consultancy servicesDevelopment services of real estateFinancial management consultancy servicesGeneral management consultancy services
Delivery area
UK
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-0784a7 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

9 Oct 2026 → 4 Jan 2027 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published19 days ago
    9 Oct 2026, 12:05 BST
  2. Market engagement8 days ago
    19 Oct 2026, 23:59 BST

    Please complete the questionnaire via the following link: forms.cloud.microsoft/pages/responsepage.aspx ↗

    The specification is available via Bravo (Jaggaer One); the project reference is Project_1264

    If not already registered, then register with Bravo via the following link in order to access the project (Project_1264 ) (pqq_267) and the specification: wmca.ukp.app.jaggaer.com/web/login.html ↗

  3. Today
    28 Oct 2026
  4. Tender notice expectedin 5 days
    2 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
  5. Contract startsin 67 days
    4 Jan 2027

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    9 Oct 2026, 12:05 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

West Midlands Combined Authority

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PGMD-1353-PZVX 16 Summer Lane, Birmingham, West Midlands, B19 3SDContact email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure