Contract award

West Yorkshire funds two bus depot electrifications by direct award

By Staff Writer  |  02-09-2026

West Yorkshire Combined Authority has placed two works contracts with First West Yorkshire Limited to electrify the Bradford and Huddersfield bus depots, at 16,628,081 pounds and 10,550,368 pounds. Both were awarded on 27 August 2026 by direct award, and both contract details notices were published at 12:25 on 1 September 2026.

The combined figure across the two notices is 27,178,449 pounds. Neither notice carries a separate gross figure, so no value added tax is shown on either. Both are recorded as above threshold, both name First West Yorkshire Limited of Leeds as the sole supplier, and both carry a standstill period ending on 10 September 2026.

A grant to a bus operator, treated by the funder as a works contract and advertised as a direct award, because the operator will hold exclusive access to the site.

Why it went out without a competition

The two notices give the same reasoning. The Combined Authority intends that electric buses will run from the Bradford and Huddersfield depots under the West Yorkshire bus franchising scheme, as part of what the notices call the Weaver Network. The Authority states that it is negotiating the purchase of the depots, but that it expects the operator to hold exclusive access before franchised services begin, and that the electrification work has to be in place by then.

The Authority therefore decided to fund the operator to procure the works, drawing on the Joint Air Quality Unit and the West Yorkshire Transport Fund. The notices record that although the arrangement is a grant, the Authority accepts that the funding agreement could be viewed as a works contract because the works will ultimately benefit the Authority, and that it has chosen to comply with the Procurement Act 2023 in procuring the funding and delivery of the works.

The direct award justification recorded on both notices is a single supplier holding intellectual property or exclusive rights. The reason given is access: at the point of award and commencement, the operator will have exclusive rights in respect of the depot, either as its owner or, where it has sold the depot to the Authority, through its rights of quiet enjoyment while it continues to run services before franchising starts.

What is actually being bought

The notices describe the requirement simply as electrification works. The classifications are more specific and are the same on both: electrical installation work, electrical wiring and fitting work, electrical engineering installation works, and electricity supply installations. There is no separate civil engineering or building classification on either notice, and no charger count, no connection capacity and no substation scope is published.

Delivery is recorded against West Yorkshire on both. The Bradford contract period is recorded as starting on 14 September 2026, which is four days after the standstill period ends. Neither notice publishes a completion date in the summary record, and none is assumed here.

The point a practitioner will notice

Two things on these notices are worth reading carefully. The first is that the buyer has voluntarily characterised a grant funding agreement as a works contract and advertised it as one. That decision is the buyer's own and is stated on the face of the notice. It removes the argument that the money fell outside the procurement rules, and it starts a standstill period, which a bare grant would not.

The second is that the exclusive rights ground is being used to reach a party whose exclusivity comes from occupation rather than from technology. The notices do not rest on the operator being the only firm capable of doing electrical work. They rest on the operator being the only party able to give access to the depot at the time the work must be done. That is a possession argument dressed in a procurement ground, and it will stand or fall on the ownership position at the moment of award, which the notices themselves describe as still under negotiation.

Nothing on either notice records a value for the works separately from the funding, so it is not established whether the published figure is the sum granted, the estimated cost of the works, or both. What is recorded is a single amount against each award, with no gross figure and no provisional allowance shown.