Bid writing · Sector
Construction and maintenance tenders.
Responsive repairs, planned works, voids and compliance contracts for councils, housing associations and public estates. More bidders are eliminated here at selection than at quality.
Most contractors lose before anyone reads their answers.
Construction procurement is gated harder than any other sector we work in. Before a single quality response is opened, a bid has to clear the Common Assessment Standard or an SSIP scheme, CDM organisational competence, insurance levels, accident and RIDDOR history, and a financial standing test, often a minimum turnover of up to twice the annual contract value, though most buyers accept other evidence such as a parent company guarantee.
That is a documentation problem, not a capability problem, and it eliminates good contractors every week. Certificates lapse three weeks before the contract start date. A ratio gets calculated on the wrong set of filed accounts. A health and safety policy has last year’s signature on it.
It is also the most fixable part of a bid, because none of it is subjective. Once you are through selection, the quality stage in this sector is genuinely winnable, because the field is smaller than it looks.
- RepairsResponsive repairs and voids for councils, ALMOs and housing associations
- PlannedKitchens, bathrooms, roofing, windows and external wall programmes
- ComplianceGas, electrical, fire safety, water hygiene and lift servicing contracts
- RetrofitDecarbonisation and energy efficiency works under Warm Homes and SHDF
- EstatesSchool, civic and healthcare refurbishment, fit-out and minor works
- ExternalGrounds maintenance, highways and minor civils lots
Where the marks actually sit
Selection is documentation. Quality is sequencing.
Once you are through the gate, the questions that carry weight are about programme, occupied properties and what happens when something goes wrong. Generic safety narrative scores two out of five in this sector, every time.
Common Assessment Standard and SSIP
Which scheme the buyer accepts, what is already in place, what expires before contract start, and getting the gap closed before the deadline rather than explaining it afterwards.
CDM competence
Organisational capability under CDM 2015, written as a system with named duty holders and a training matrix, not a folder of individual cards appended to the back of the bid.
Financial standing
Turnover ratios, net asset tests, credit scores and parent company guarantees, and the options when the threshold sits above your last filed accounts.
Programme and response times
Sequencing, out-of-hours rotas, emergency and routine SLAs, and KPI targets you can hold for four years rather than the ones that look best on paper.
Working in occupied homes
Resident liaison, appointment slots, vulnerable resident protocols, DBS on operatives, and how a complaint is resolved before it becomes a councillor’s inbox.
Quality and defects
Right-first-time rates, post-inspection regimes, snagging, and evidencing a rework percentage with a number you could be asked to prove.
Straight answer
Where construction bids get lost.
Almost always at selection, and almost always on something clerical. An expired accreditation, a turnover ratio nobody recalculated, an insurance certificate that renews the week after submission. None of it reflects the quality of the work you do.
We audit that gate first, before writing anything, because there is no point in a strong method statement behind a failed selection stage.
- Are your SSIP and CAS current?Check the expiry against contract start, not against today’s date.
- Do you meet the turnover test?Usually twice the annual contract value, on filed accounts the buyer can see.
- Can you resource the SLA?A two-hour emergency response needs a genuine out-of-hours rota, not a mobile number.
- Is your safety record clean?RIDDOR history and enforcement notices are a common pass/fail question.
If any of these is a no, we will say so before you commit.
Who writes it
The team behind your works bid.
- GraceBuilding and property maintenance, social value
- SharonLocal authority and public sector works: health and safety, workforce
- HezekiahSocial housing repairs, planned and reactive maintenance, mobilisation
- KayodeFramework and minor works applications, editing
- WilliamsMethod statements, health and safety answers, final review
Got a works contract with a deadline on it?
Send the closing date and the portal link. We'll tell you honestly whether it's worth your time, before you pay us anything.