Tender

Leeds college seeks principal contractor for 14 million pound refurbishment

By Staff Writer  |  27 August 2026

Leeds College of Building has invited requests to participate for a principal contractor to undertake the design, construction, management and delivery of refurbishment works to the newly named CTEC Building on Byron Street, Leeds. The contract carries a value of 14,000,000 pounds excluding value added tax and 16,800,000 pounds including it. The notice, identifier 081505-2026, was published on 26 August 2026 at 4:54pm under the reference CA18389.

The procedure is the competitive flexible procedure under the Procurement Act 2023. Award is on technical quality at 40 per cent and cost at 60 per cent. The contract period runs from 1 March 2027 to 31 March 2028, with a maximum extent date of 31 March 2029 and one extension of twelve months permitted.

The college publishes a full timetable with the notice. The procurement specific questionnaire was issued on Wednesday 26 August 2026 and is due back by noon on Monday 21 September 2026, with evaluation the same day. The stage one invitation to tender is to be issued on Monday 28 September 2026 with a deadline of noon on Monday 26 October 2026, and notification of the successful bidder is given as 30 November 2026. The college states that these dates, including the proposed date of appointment, may vary.

Ten weeks from questionnaire to notification

The published programme allows just over three weeks for the questionnaire, four weeks for stage one, and five weeks between the stage one deadline and notification. The notice adds that a further invitation to tender stage will follow shortly after stage one notifications of bidders, so the timetable printed on the notice does not run to award. The enquiry period closes at noon on 14 September 2026, a week before the questionnaire is due, and the award period is recorded as ending on 1 March 2027.

That last date is the same day the contract period begins. A programme that leaves no gap between the end of the award period and the start on site assumes everything before it holds, which is precisely why the college has written into the notice that the dates may vary.

Design and construction in one appointment

The college is buying design, construction, management and delivery from one party. The classifications attached to the notice are overhaul and refurbishment work, construction work, refurbishment work, construction work for school buildings, construction work for college buildings, and technical college construction work. Nothing in the notice describes the physical scope of the refurbishment: no floor areas, no building age, no statement of what the CTEC Building was previously used for or what it is being converted to serve.

What the notice does record is that the building has been newly named, which places the project inside a wider change of use or rebranding that is not itself described on the notice. A principal contractor pricing design as well as construction on a refurbishment of an existing building is taking the risk of what the survey work finds, and the notice publishes no survey, no condition report and no pre construction information.

Selection through a questionnaire

Both the economic and the technical selection criteria are stated in identical terms. Candidates must register with the college's tendering portal and express an interest, then complete and return a procurement specific questionnaire as part of the request to participate process. Candidates must provide evidence of business quality standards, accreditations and relevant experience. The notice adds that any candidate found to be guilty of serious misrepresentation in proving false or inaccurate information may be declared ineligible and not selected to continue with the process.

The buyer is classified on the notice as a public undertaking rather than a contracting authority of central or sub central government, and the procurement is recorded as above threshold with works as the main procurement category. The college is registered at North Street, Leeds. Electronic submission is allowed and the language is English.

For a college whose subject is construction, the appointment carries an obvious secondary interest: the works will be carried out on a campus whose students are training for the trades doing them. Nothing on the notice says whether that has been reflected in the technical quality criteria, and the 40 per cent quality weighting is published without any breakdown of what it will measure.