Tender

UK1 - Pipeline Notice Biodiversity Unit and Carbon Credits

NATIONAL HIGHWAYS

This public procurement record has 4 releases in its history.

TenderCancellation

18 Sep 2025 at 08:04

Planning

14 May 2025 at 14:12

PlanningUpdate

18 Mar 2025 at 12:47

Planning

17 Mar 2025 at 11:02

Summary of the contracting process

The procurement process led by National Highways, titled "UK1 - Pipeline Notice Biodiversity Unit and Carbon Credits", focuses on acquiring biodiversity units and carbon credits to achieve biodiversity net gain regulations on England’s Strategic Road Network. While this tender initially launched as a planned procurement with a gross value of £2.4 billion and a services category within the UK, it underwent cancellations during various stages, resulting in a withdrawn status. The process included preliminary market engagements and planning commenced in early 2025, with future notice anticipated by late May 2026. The procurement was an open engagement with businesses to solidify market capabilities and legal mechanisms suitable for such strategic environmental management, reflecting key interest in dynamic purchasing systems and framework agreements by prospective suppliers.

This tender creates substantial opportunities for businesses involved in environmental management, such as habitat banks, conservation charities, and emerging platforms focusing on sustainability and biodiversity preservation. The process underscores a preference for procurement models that allow ongoing entry and scalability, thus small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and voluntary, community, or social enterprises (VCSEs) are well-positioned to participate and grow through such engagements. Moreover, the anticipated frameworks are intended for utilisation by the broader public sector, broadening potential market applicability and encouraging diverse business engagement aligned with long-term environmental stewardship and innovative conservation solutions.

How relevant is this notice?

Notice Information

Notice Title

UK1 - Pipeline Notice Biodiversity Unit and Carbon Credits

Notice Description

National Highways expect to need to purchase Biodiversity units to meet Biodiversity Net Gain regulations and achieve 10% net gains in biodiversity levels though our work to maintain and develop England's Strategic Road Network. We also expect to need to purchase Carbon Credits this procurement will focus on biodiversity, but explore the benefits of linking in to our Carbon Credit requirements. We will engage with the market to explore current capacity, planned enhancements to capacity and timescales for such. A short term solution using our existing Dynamic Purchasing System is being investigated separately. We expect to enable our resultant framework, so that it can be used by the wider public sector, as such the values quoted at this stage are indicative only.

Planning Information

To be determined.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-04edb2
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/057554-2025
Current Stage
Tender
All Stages
Planning, Tender

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK12 - Procurement Termination Notice
Procurement Type
Dynamic, Framework
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Not Specified
Procurement Method Details
Not specified
Tender Suitability
SME, VCSE
Awardee Scale
Not specified

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

90 - Sewage, refuse, cleaning and environmental services


CPV Codes

90710000 - Environmental management

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
£2,000,000 £1M-£10M
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
18 Sep 20252 months ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
29 May 20266 months to go
Award Date
Not specified
Contract Period
30 Apr 2027 - 30 Apr 2030 3-4 years
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Withdrawn
Lots Status
Withdrawn
Awards Status
Cancelled
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
NATIONAL HIGHWAYS
Additional Buyers

MISSING

Contact Name
Not specified
Contact Email
info@nationalhighways.co.uk
Contact Phone
Not specified

Buyer Location

Locality
GUILDFORD
Postcode
GU1 4LZ
Post Town
Guildford
Country
England

Major Region (ITL 1)
TLJ South East (England)
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLJ2 Surrey, East and West Sussex
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLJ25 West Surrey
Delivery Location
Not specified

Local Authority
Guildford
Electoral Ward
Stoke
Westminster Constituency
Guildford

Further Information

Notice Documents

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

View full OCDS Record for this contracting process

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The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) is a framework designed to increase transparency and access to public procurement data in the public sector. It is widely used by governments and organisations worldwide to report on procurement processes and contracts.

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            "statusDetails": "Market Engagement for Biodiversity Net Gain potential Procurement. Approach Engagement focused on the maturity, capacity and commercial models of potential suppliers and the legal mechanisms for securing long term biodiversity outcomes. The scope covered: * Regional supply and pricing variability * Delivery and monitoring assurance (30+ years) * Legal structuring (Conservation Covenants, S106 agreements) * Procurement model preferences (DPS, framework, co-development) Methodologies included structured supplier interviews, EOI submissions, pricing analysis and legal model comparisons. Engagement was carried out with habitat banks, conservation charities, brokers, social enterprises and platform operators. Findings The BNG market is developing rapidly but remains fragmented and unevenly distributed. Providers include: * Commercial providers offering off the shelf units with legal assurance * Charitable conservation bodies offering long term stewardship with strong ESG alignment, but limited scalability * Emerging platforms and brokers providing flexible but less proven models. Costs of BNG units vary, but often exceed our internal affordability cap of PS20,000 per unit. Suppliers prefer procurement models that are open, flexible and allow for entry and scalability over time, such as Dynamic Purchasing Systems and Framework Agreements. Spot purchases and one off tenders were discouraged. Conclusion National Highways concludes its 2025 Biodiversity Net Gain market engagement with thanks to stakeholders, suppliers and institutional partners. The learning gathered, together with a critical examination of our internal priorities mean no formal large scale Procurement is currently planned.",
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