Tender

Renfrewshire tenders retrofit works and moves design risk mid-contract

By Staff Writer  |  31-08-2026

Renfrewshire Council has gone to the market for a design and build contractor to retrofit the external fabric of housing across the council area. The notice states a value of 135,000,000 pounds and a contract period of 2,520 days. It was published on the United Kingdom contract finding service on 31 August 2026 at 09:35, under tender reference RC-CPU-25-009.

The requirement is recorded as a works contract and classified as roof works and other special trade construction works, with insulation work and building construction work carried as further classifications. The stated scope is the design, build and delivery of retrofit external works to existing wholly owned and mixed tenure residential properties throughout Renfrewshire, the objective given as improving the energy efficiency and thermal performance of the housing stock. Work is issued by task order rather than as one defined package.

The point a contractor should read twice is not the money. It is that the contract does not carry the same design liability at the end that it carries at the start.

Design responsibility moves at the first extension

For the initial two year term the council provides the design information, using designs already produced by architects it engaged separately for that purpose. The appointed contractor is responsible for supply and installation only. The notice then records that from the commencement of the first extension period responsibility transfers to the contractor, who undertakes both the design and the build elements for the remainder of the term.

That is one contract containing two different risk positions. In the first two years the contractor builds to someone else's design and its exposure is an installation exposure. After that it owns the design of the same work on the same stock. Selection has to test both, which is why it weights design and build contracting at 20 per cent alongside technical and professional ability at 25 per cent, quality control at 20 per cent, large scale contracts and volume of works at 15 per cent each, and the Passive House Planning Package at 5 per cent.

External fabric retrofit is also an area where the consequences of a design decision arrive late. Insulation, ventilation and moisture behave as one system in an existing building, and failures show up in occupied properties over years rather than at handover. It is worth settling at tender stage what happens to liability for the work installed in years one and two once the design role has moved.

The stated contract period is 2,520 days, a little under seven years, and the contract is subject to renewal if the extension periods are not used or the overall period expires. Variants are not permitted. The 135,000,000 pounds is the figure published on the notice for the procurement: an estimate on a live tender rather than a contract sum, with no gross figure and no split between the initial term and the extensions.

How the competition is run

The council is using the restricted procedure under regulation 29 of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015, so candidates first submit a request to participate and a shortlist is then invited to tender. The council states that it intends to limit the number invited to a minimum of five and a maximum of five.

It reserves the right to invite more or fewer where it considers this necessary to ensure sufficient competition and equal treatment, or where a candidate's final technical envelope score is within 1 per cent of the fifth ranked score. That tie provision matters, because on a five place shortlist the difference between being invited and not can be a single percentage point.

Requests to participate close at 12:00 on 5 October 2026, the invitation to tender is recorded for 19 October 2026, and bids remain valid until 22 April 2027. The contract recommendation is anticipated to go to the council's Finance, Resources and Customer Services Policy Board on 11 February 2027, that date to be confirmed at tender stage. Award is on quality at 60 per cent and price at 40 per cent.

What the recommended tenderer has to produce

The documents required at the request for documentation stage include a parent company guarantee, a consortium guarantee, a main contractor collateral warranty and a sub-contractor collateral warranty, with a list of proposed sub-contractors, a prompt payment certificate and a waste carrier registration.

The successful tenderer must also consult the council's property insurers, described on the notice as its risk engineering team, at the early design stage. On external fabric work to occupied housing that is a substantive obligation rather than a formality, and it sits alongside performance conditions on community benefits, fair work first and key performance indicators. Review proceedings lie in the Sheriff Court or the Court of Session under regulation 88 of the 2015 Regulations.