Tender

Wolverhampton tenders 1.27 million pound art gallery repair works

By Staff Writer  |  24 August 2026

Wolverhampton City Council has gone to tender for repair and refurbishment works at Wolverhampton Art Gallery, with a total estimated value of 1,270,000 pounds excluding value added tax. The notice was published on 24 August 2026 at 9:19am under the identifier 2026/S 000-080151 and carries the council reference CWC26123.

The scope is set out on the notice in four bullets. The works comprise restoration of stonework to address public safety; repairing roof and chimneys to address leaks in the roof which impact on structural integrity and pose potential risk to exhibition areas and valuable collections; upgrading and refurbishing the air handling units to improve efficiency and performance and replacing the obsolete building management system; and upgrading the electrical infrastructure to meet current standards and improve reliability.

The estimated total value is 1,270,000 pounds excluding value added tax and 1,524,000 pounds including it, and the procurement is recorded as below the relevant threshold. Estimated contract dates run from 18 January 2027 to 2 July 2027, a period the notice describes as five months and sixteen days. The enquiry deadline is 11 September 2026 at 12:00pm and the tender submission deadline is 2 October 2026 at 12:00pm. The award criteria are price 40 per cent, quality 50 per cent and social value 10 per cent. The procedure is below threshold open competition and the lot is recorded as particularly suitable for small and medium sized enterprises.

Four packages, one contractor, one occupied building

The notice puts stonework, roofing, mechanical plant, controls and electrical infrastructure into a single works contract classified as overhaul and refurbishment work. That is four trades working on the same building, and the building is a working art gallery holding a collection the notice itself describes as valuable and at potential risk from the roof leaks.

The programme is the point a bidder should test first. Five months and sixteen days is allowed for scaffolding, external masonry repair, roof and chimney work, plant replacement and rewiring. Stone restoration and roof repair are both weather dependent and both are opening up works, where the quantity of repair is not known until access is taken and the defective material is exposed. A January start places the external elements in the worst part of the year for both. The notice publishes no phasing, no sectional completion dates and no statement of whether the gallery remains open during the works.

The obsolete building management system is the second point. Replacing a control system that is out of production is rarely a like for like exchange: the replacement has to be integrated with plant that was commissioned against the old system, and the interface between the new controls and the retained mechanical and electrical equipment is where commissioning delay tends to accumulate. The notice does not say whether the air handling units are being refurbished or replaced, and the distinction matters, because refurbishing existing units and replacing an entire control system are different risk profiles for the same contractor.

What the notice does not publish

The notice names no form of contract. It records no listed building status for the gallery and no consent position for the stonework or the chimneys, which on a Victorian civic building would ordinarily be the first thing a contractor needs to know before pricing masonry repair. It records no condition survey, no schedule of dilapidation and no quantities. It does not say how much of the stonework is to be restored, only that the restoration addresses public safety, which implies defective masonry at height and the temporary protection that goes with it.

The award criteria give a bidder more to work with than most notices in this class. Quality at 50 per cent against price at 40 per cent, with social value making up the remaining 10 per cent, means the tender is not decided on price alone, and on a heritage fabric package that is the sensible weighting. The criteria are published as headline percentages only; the sub criteria, and how the quality submission is scored, will sit in the documents on the council's tendering portal.

Enquiries close on 11 September 2026 and tenders on 2 October 2026, so unlike some below threshold notices this one leaves three clear weeks between the two. A bidder who needs the condition information, the consent position and the phasing constraints has that window in which to ask for them, and on a scope of this kind the answers will move the price more than the rates will.