Contract award
Morrison Construction takes 34 homes at Meiklefield, Dingwall
By Staff Writer | 09-09-2026
The Highland Council has recorded the award of the Meiklefield Phase 2 new build housing contract at Dingwall to Morrison Construction at a value of 6,064,865.08 pounds excluding VAT. The contract covers 34 new homes and the associated civil engineering works at Meiklefield Road, Dingwall. The contract was concluded on 8 April 2026 and the contract award notice was published on Find a Tender on 9 September 2026. Five tenders were received.
What the contract covers
The notice, reference DIHD24007, describes the requirement in one line: 34 new build homes and associated civils works. The place of performance is Meiklefield Road, Dingwall, IV15 9TA, in the Highlands and Islands region. The main CPV classification is 45000000, construction work, and the contract is not divided into lots. The original contract notice, published on 15 January 2026, gave the contract duration as 16 months and stated that variants would not be accepted, that there were no options and that the procurement was not related to any programme financed by European Union funds.
The council is the contracting authority in its own right, as a regional or local authority whose main activity is general public services. The council's procurement contact for the contract is recorded at its Glenurquhart Road headquarters in Inverness. Neither notice states the tenure of the homes, the house types, the number of bedrooms or the funding route, and nothing on those points should be inferred from the record.
How it was procured
The contract was let by open procedure with an evaluation split of 80 percent price and 20 percent quality. Tenders were originally due by 12 noon on 19 February 2026; a change notice moved the deadline to 12 noon on 2 March 2026, and the council stated in both notices that no extension to the tender period would be accepted. Five tenders were received, all electronically. The award notice records that none of the five came from small or medium-sized enterprises and none from tenderers outside the United Kingdom. The contract was not awarded to a group of economic operators.
The contractor is Morrison Construction, recorded at 37 Harbour Road, Longman Industrial Estate, Inverness, and stated on the notice not to be an SME. The total value of the contract, excluding VAT, is given as 6,064,865.08 pounds in both the procurement summary and the award section of the notice. The review body named on the notice is the Sheriff Officer at the Inverness Justice Centre.
The contract was concluded on 8 April 2026 and the award notice appeared five months later, on 9 September 2026. On the 16 month duration stated in the contract notice, and assuming the contract period began at or shortly after conclusion, the works would run to about August 2027, although the award notice does not itself state a start or completion date and that period is an inference from the two notices read together. The notice does not say whether work on site has begun.
What the record does not say
The notice does not describe the housing beyond the number of units, does not give the site area, and does not state the form of contract, the design team or the client's programme. It does not say whether the 34 homes are for council rent, and it does not identify a Phase 1 or say whether the same contractor delivered it. The values of the four unsuccessful tenders are not published. Anyone relying on the figure should note that 6,064,865.08 pounds is the contract value at conclusion as recorded by the council, not an outturn cost.