Tender
United Utilities tenders 20 million pound sewer flooding framework
By Staff Writer | 28 August 2026
United Utilities Water Limited has gone to the market for a sewer flooding mitigation framework worth 20,780,000 pounds net, or 24,936,000 pounds including VAT. The tender notice, identifier 081910-2026, was published on 27 August 2026 at 4:01pm and closes at 3pm on 28 September 2026.
The framework will be awarded to one supplier. The notice states that it is a closed framework with a maximum of one participant, that call-offs will be made without reopening competition, and that the single supplier will retain responsibility for the entirety of requirements under the agreement.
That structure is the point of the notice. A single supplier framework with no mini-competition means the winning bidder carries the whole workload for the term, and the prices tendered next month are the prices that will be applied to every instruction that follows.
Term, extensions and scope
The lot period begins on 10 November 2026 and runs to 31 March 2030. A maximum extent date of 31 March 2040 is recorded on the same lot. The extension arrangement is stated as a five year extension term and a further five year extension term thereafter, described by the buyer as being in alignment with regulatory asset management plan periods.
So the tendered term is a little under three and a half years and the outer term is thirteen and a half. The two extension terms are the difference between them, and both are framed against the water industry's five yearly planning cycle rather than against the works.
The description on the notice is one line: the procurement covers the United Utilities Sewer Flooding Mitigation Framework Agreement. The classifications carried by the lot are more informative. They are 45246400, flood prevention works; 42131143, flood control valves; 44212382, floodgates; 45246410, flood defences maintenance works; and 90480000, sewerage management services.
Read together those five cover the physical mitigation of sewer flooding rather than the reactive clearance of it: prevention works and the valves and gates that go with them, the maintenance of what is installed, and the sewerage management wrapper around both. The delivery region is given as UKD, North West England, which is the buyer's operating area.
How the bids will be scored
The award criteria are stated in the notice as technical capability at 60 per cent and commercial pricing at 40 per cent, both as exact percentages. A quality weighting of that size on a single supplier framework is unusual enough to be worth noticing, because it is the only competitive event: there is no second stage at which a cheaper bidder can come back in.
The lot is marked as suitable for small and medium sized enterprises. The conditions of participation are not set out on the notice itself. Both the legal and financial conditions and the technical ability conditions are recorded as being as per the published tender documentation on the buyer's tendering portal, so a bidder cannot establish from this notice whether it qualifies.
What is not stated
The notice does not give a volume of work, a number of properties at risk, a geographic split within the North West, or any indication of how the 20,780,000 pounds is expected to fall across the term. It does not say whether the figure is a ceiling or an estimate. It does not describe the pricing mechanism, so whether the commercial 40 per cent will be scored on a schedule of rates, a target cost or a lump sum cannot be read here.
The legal basis is the Procurement Act 2023 and the procedure is recorded as open, run as a competitive flexible procedure, under the utilities arrangements. Anyone intending to bid has until 3pm on 28 September 2026, and the notice records that time in UTC.