Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 30 Sept 2026, 10:27 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Rochdale Town Centre District Heat Network Development

Authority: Rochdale Borough Council (Local council)

ServicesAbove threshold
Planned pipeline valueValue not publishedpipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 1 yrends 4 Aug 2028 · starts 4 Aug 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Rochdale Borough Council is preparing to launch a procurement exercise for a Development Partner for the Rochdale Town Centre Heat Network and is inviting interested organisations to attend a virtual Bidders Day on Thursday 15th October between 12pm to 1pm.

The Bidders Day will provide prospective bidders with an introduction to the project and the forthcoming procurement opportunity, with contributions from representatives of the project team.

The event will be delivered via a presentation with contributions from Rochdale/GMCA and the Council's advisers.

Please note that questions will not be answered during the event. Questions raised through the meeting will be recorded and responses will be provided following the event. These responses will be circulated to attendees alongside the presentation materials as part of the procurement documentation.

Organisations interested in attending should register their interest by emailing daniel.hart@star-procurement.gov.uk and chris.farmer@star-procurement.gov.uk. Joining details for the Microsoft Teams event will be provided.

Participation in the Bidders Day is intended to support market engagement ahead of the forthcoming procurement opportunity. Attendance at the event is not a prerequisite for participation in the subsequent procurement process.

CPV: Energy and related services · Public utilities

The lotProcurement structure

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

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

How Rochdale Borough Council buys Consultative engineering and construction services (CPV 7131), and who usually turns up

Rochdale Borough Council’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 buyerRochdale Borough Council · all categories
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: 20 of 31 known-size awards · market: CPV 7131 · UK-wide, n=1,199
65%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: 45 of 54 known-location awards · market: CPV 7131 · UK-wide, n=1,156
83%51%

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: 8 decided notices · market: CPV 7131 · UK-wide, n=226
33 days48 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 26 of 64 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 7131 · UK-wide, n=1,674
41%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 buyer11 lots with bid counts · all categories
9% had one bid
The market452 lots with bid counts · CPV 7131 · UK-wide
14% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid9% / 14%
Buyer: 1 of 11 lots with published bid counts. Market: 64 of 452 lots with published bid counts.
2–336% / 24%
Buyer: 4 of 11 lots with published bid counts. Market: 107 of 452 lots with published bid counts.
4–636% / 29%
Buyer: 4 of 11 lots with published bid counts. Market: 133 of 452 lots with published bid counts.
7+18% / 33%
Buyer: 2 of 11 lots with published bid counts. Market: 148 of 452 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 buyer6 lots with estimate and award · all categories
67% below estimate
The market318 lots with estimate and award · CPV 7131 · UK-wide
42% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate67% / 42%
Buyer: 4 of 6 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 133 of 318 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%17% / 43%
Buyer: 1 of 6 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 136 of 318 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate17% / 15%
Buyer: 1 of 6 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 49 of 318 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 713112 monthsEstimate 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 452 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet14% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 452 similar lots
1 bid14%
64 of 452 similar past lots received 1 bid (14%).
2–324%
107 of 452 similar past lots received 2–3 (24%).
4–629%
133 of 452 similar past lots received 4–6 (29%).
7+33%
148 of 452 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
30 Sept 2026, 10:27 BST
Last source update
30 Sept 2026, 10:27 BST
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-092205
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Energy and related servicesPublic utilities
Delivery area
UK
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-077d32 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

30 Sept 2026 → 4 Aug 2027 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published26 days ago
    30 Sept 2026, 10:27 BST
  2. Market engagement11 days ago
    16 Oct 2026, 00:59 BST

    Organisations interested in attending the virtual Bidder's Day should email daniel.hart@star-procurement.gov.uk and chris.farmer@star-procurement.gov.uk. Joining details for the Microsoft Teams event will be provided.

  3. Today
    27 Oct 2026
  4. Contract startsin 280 days
    4 Aug 2027

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    30 Sept 2026, 10:27 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

Rochdale Borough Council

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PXXD-6682-MDRX Number One Riverside, Rochdale, North West, OL16 1XUContact email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure