Contract award
Harlow lets 1.65 million pound interim fire safety works to Trail Group
By Staff Writer | 09-09-2026
Harlow District Council has recorded a 1,650,000 pound contract with Trail Group Limited for an interim fire safety remedial and planned works programme across its housing. The contract runs for twelve months to prepare the ground for a wider five year fire risk assessment programme which the council intends to procure. It was signed on 27 March 2026 and runs from 30 April 2026 to 28 February 2027; the contract details notice was published on Find a Tender on 9 September 2026.
What the contract covers
The notice describes the award as a contract for a fire safety remedial and planned works programme lasting twelve months, put in place to enable the preparation and procurement of a wider five year FRA programme. In the council's words, the works will ensure compliance with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the Building Safety Act 2022 and the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, and will improve the Decent Homes standard of the buildings concerned.
The single contract is titled Interim Fire Safety Remedial and Planned Works Programme. Its main procurement category is works and its CPV classification is 45343000, fire-prevention installation works. The contract location is UKH35, West Essex. The notice does not list the buildings, the number of dwellings or blocks, or the individual remedial actions the programme covers, and it does not say whether the works arise from specific fire risk assessment findings.
The value and the dates
The contract value is 1,650,000 pounds excluding VAT and 1,980,000 pounds including VAT, which the notice marks as below the relevant threshold. The contract was signed on 27 March 2026. The contract dates are 30 April 2026 to 28 February 2027, a period the notice gives as ten months and one day, which is shorter than the twelve month programme described in the scope. The notice does not reconcile the two periods and no extension option is recorded.
The procedure is recorded as below threshold, with the procedure type shown as unknown. The notice therefore does not state whether the contract was competed, let by direct award or called off from a framework, and nothing on that point should be inferred.
The supplier is Trail Group Limited, Companies House number 05057190, of Unit C, White Oak Technology Centre, Swanley, in the West Kent region. The notice records it as a small or medium-sized enterprise and not a voluntary, community or social enterprise. The contracting authority is Harlow District Council, Civic Centre, Harlow, CM20 1WG, a public authority in sub-central government in the West Essex region.
The award is small by the standards of this desk, but the record is unusual in stating openly that it is a stop-gap. The council has let one year of fire safety works so that a five year programme can be scoped and tendered properly, and it names the three pieces of legislation against which that programme will be measured. Contractors in the passive fire and remedial market should expect the larger procurement to follow; the notice gives no timetable for it and no estimate of its value.
What the record does not say
The notice does not describe the stock, does not say how many properties are within scope and does not identify any high-rise or higher-risk buildings among them. It gives no breakdown of the 1,650,000 pounds between remedial and planned work, no form of contract and no consultant or fire engineer. Whether the twelve month figure in the scope or the ten month contract period governs is not stated. Anything beyond the notice wording is unconfirmed.