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MHCLG Standby Communications Research

MINISTRY OF HOUSING, COMMUNITIES & LOCAL GOVERNMENT

This public procurement record has 2 releases in its history.

TenderCancellation

31 Jul 2026 at 11:06

UK12 - Procurement Termination Notice
Planning

12 May 2026 at 13:25

UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Summary of the contracting process

The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government sought a research agency to provide qualitative and quantitative communications research on a standby basis across the United Kingdom. The work supports the Communications Directorate’s press, digital and marketing teams by testing messages, understanding target audiences and evaluating paid-for campaigns. Research may involve landlords, private and social renters, homeowners, home buyers, local communities, businesses, ethnic and faith communities, developers, letting agents, charities and other stakeholders. Subject areas include housing, planning, regeneration, building and fire safety, homelessness, elections, regional devolution and community cohesion. The requirement covers project design, participant recruitment, data collection, analysis, reporting, presentations and workshops, with individual assignments agreed as needs arise.

The process reached tender and invited offers through the Government Commercial Agency’s RM6126 Research and Insights Dynamic Purchasing System, but the tender was subsequently withdrawn. The stated reason was that the contract is being sourced through that DPS. The planned contract period was 4 January 2027 to 3 January 2029, with an optional extension to 3 January 2031. The estimated value was £10,000,000 excluding VAT, or £12,000,000 including VAT. The preliminary engagement set registration and expression-of-interest deadlines of 17:00 on 3 June 2026, further-question deadline of 12:00 on 10 June 2026, and response deadline of 12:00 on 12 June 2026. The procurement was above the relevant threshold and the lot was suitable for SMEs.

This opportunity suited research agencies able to mobilise quickly and manage varied assignments without guaranteed volumes. Strong bidders would demonstrate quantitative expertise in survey and questionnaire design, online, telephone and face-to-face research, polling, segmentation, conjoint analysis, regression, multilevel regression post-stratification and impact evaluation. Qualitative capability included focus groups, depth interviews, online communities, content analysis, and message and creative testing. The requirement also called for desk research, literature reviews, behaviour-change theory, evidence-based recommendations, quality assurance, innovative methods and work with academics, topic experts, creative and media agencies. Suppliers needed capability in participant recruitment, sampling, data protection, statistical testing, reporting and senior-level presentations, with access to translation services and experience researching social themes and communications.

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Notice Information

Notice Title

MHCLG Standby Communications Research

Notice Description

The Insight and Evaluation team in the MHCLG Communications Directorate requires a supplier to provide qualitative and quantitative research on a stand-by basis. We are a small and dynamic team servicing the needs of a busy and evolving communications directorate - including press, digital and marketing colleagues - by providing an evidence base which ensures we are communicating in the most efficient and effective way to our various target audiences. As such, we are looking for an agency which can work agilely and able to turn around projects at short notice when required. The core work of the team is the evaluation of our large scale paid-for marketing campaigns, which requires large surveys with often tricky samples including landlords, private rented sector tenants and social housing tenants. This is supplemented by more ad hoc pieces of work which include fast turn-around polling, message testing and in-depth qualitative work. For example, we conducted exploratory polling examining housing quality issues and complaints processes in the private rented sector. We are looking for an agency that can maintain the work and quality we've built so far but also suggest innovative methods and products which might help hone and expand our insight offer. The contract will be for a period of two years with an optional extension of a further one plus one years. As this is a renewal of an existing contract, any supplier will be required to conduct an extensive handover with the existing Supplier and help to maintain consistency and comparability with previous research conducted for the team where applicable. HIGH LEVEL OUTLINE PROJECT OUTCOMES REQUIRED The supplier must demonstrate experience and expertise in the following quantitative research approaches in relation to communication projects: * Survey and questionnaire design. * Surveys delivery using online, telephone or face-to-face methods. * Public opinion polling. * Verbatim analysis. * Statistical analysis including segmentation, conjoint analysis, regression, and multi-level regression post-stratification. * Impact evaluation. The supplier must demonstrate experience and expertise in the following qualitative research approaches in relation to communications projects: * Focus groups and depth interviews, including face-to-face, telephone and online methods. * Content analysis. * Online communities. * Message and creative testing and analysis. We also require the supplier to demonstrate experience and expertise in supporting research practices * Desk research. * Literature reviews. * Communications behaviours change theory. * Creating robust recommendations based on evidence. * High quality slide decks and research reports. * Robust quality assurance practices. * Working with academics and other topic experts. * Working with agency partners including creative and media buyer agencies. * Innovative methods of research as recommended by the Supplier. * Working with translation providers. * Working in multi-disciplinary teams. * Using AI for time and cost efficiencies where applicable. * Coming up with innovative research methods. * Doing research with smaller audiences like landlords, faith communities and postcode targeted areas. General research requirements: * Experience in government, policy and the public sector is beneficial, but not essential. The Supplier must, however, demonstrate expertise in delivering research on social themes, and in research relating to communications specifically. * It is not possible to specify further detail in relation to any confirmed or anticipated project topic areas, volumes, stakeholders and research method preferences. The requirements will vary for each commissioned project, and this will be dependent on business needs. * The Supplier for each requirement must demonstrate that they have expertise to deliver research projects relevant to the topic interests of the Buyer - which will include, but will not be limited to the following: o Home ownership. o Planning system, home building and regeneration. o Building safety. o Private Rented Sector. o Social housing. o Homelessness and rough sleeping. o Regional devolution. o Faith and community cohesion. o Local regeneration. o Fire safety. o Elections. * Commissioned research projects will focus on improving the Buyer's understanding of key audiences which will include, but not be limited to the following groups: o Homeowners and potential home buyers. o Private renters. o Social housing tenants. o General public. o Landlords. o Home builders and developers. o Letting agents and landlords. o Local communities, including residents and businesses. o Ethnic minorities and faith communities. o Stakeholder organisations, including industry and charities. * Projects will typically be conducted in English, but there may be circumstances where research conducted in other languages is required. The Supplier must have access to appropriate language and translation services. * The Supplier for each requirement will be appointed on a standby basis. Due to the ad-hoc nature of the Buyer's requirements, individual projects and associated budgets will be agreed on a case-by-case basis. Therefore, this Contract does not provide any guarantee of minimum work, volumes or spend. OUTPUTS/DELIVERABLES The Supplier must be prepared to perform research projects as follows should they be commissioned: * A response to a specific project brief outlining understanding of issues/context, approach including recruitment and sampling, key risks, timings aligned to the specific requirements of each project, and costs. * Kick off meetings to agree approach with key Buyer contacts. * Design of all data capture instruments and support data protection work. * Manage of the recruitment and consent of all research participants. * Data collection and analysis. * During active projects, a weekly status meeting with emailed status update sent within 1 working day. * Provision of interim findings / analysis meeting pre-debrief. * Supply of data tables (as relevant and where applicable, weighted and with statistical significance testing). * Raw data files in Excel or SPSS for quantitative projects (Statistics Software Package for Data Analytics), and transcripts and/or recordings for qualitative research where applicable (where requested). * Short summaries of headline findings. * Verbal and/or face-to-face presentation using PowerPoint. The Supplier will be required to give presentations on research findings to the Buyer, which may include presenting to Senior Staff, Special Advisors, and government Ministers. * The Supplier will be responsible for producing a final report per project that considers the diverse information that has been collected and clearly synthesises the key findings. Final reports may be published by the Buyer on the GOV.UK website. * Facilitation of workshops with key Buyer and Supplier personnel to embed findings (if requested/agreed on an ad hoc basis). The Buyer requires, where requested, a 'lessons learnt' meeting covering what was successful about the research approaches taken, what challenges were faced, and any changes to the methodology that the Supplier would recommend for similar projects in the future. * Strategic analysis combining primary data with other sources of available secondary and operational data (as applicable). The Supplier will draw on a wide source of adjacent data as possible, as is appropriate for individual projects. The Supplier must not rely solely on commissioned insight. Data sources may include, but not be limited to, management information, publicly available polling and web analytics, depending on nature of the project in question. * Identification of trends and patterns over time. * Each project will have a project steering group. The Supplier will work collaboratively with this group - taking on board comments and suggestions, whilst also providing constructive challenge on methods of research delivery and interim conclusions drawn from the different sources of information and stages of analysis. Communication with the project steering group will be managed by a single point of contact in the Buyer's Insight and Evaluation team. The Supplier must make clear the limitations of the individual research projects and communicate to the Buyer where further research would be beneficial. The Supplier will allow flexibility throughout the Contract allowing the Buyer and the Supplier to react to emerging matters and changing priorities. The Supplier's personnel allocated to commissioned projects must have experience and skills in presenting research findings in a formal presentation environment.

Planning Information

KEY DATES & TENDERING PROCESS If it is decided this service is required, it is anticipated that a procurement may start in July or August 2026 with the contract to commence around March 2027. These indicative dates are for information purposes only. MHCLG reserve the right to amend these dates at any time, and Potential Suppliers rely on them entirely at their own risk. Indicative key competition and contract dates are set out below. Premarket engagement call Mon 8 Jun 2026 Issue of ITT Jul/Aug 2026 Deadline for submission of tenders Aug 2026 Contract award decision Sep 2026 Contract commencement Jan 2027 The project, if progressed, may be procured through the Government Commercial Agency (GCA) Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) - RM6126 Research & Insights Market Place. Suppliers can apply to join the DPS at any time. Please note that all suppliers within a consortium bid must register on the DPS. During the application to join the DPS, suppliers indicate which services they may be able to provide under the DPS. Suppliers are able to register with the DPS via the following link: https://supplierregistration.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/dps#research. Please note that the registration process will take a minimum of two weeks and suppliers must be fully registered on the DPS in order take part in a tender exercise. If you have any questions about the DPS and would like to contact a member of the GCA team, please use the links provided on the website above. To help ensure that the Social Value aspects of the evaluation criteria that the Authority will apply to this procurement is fair and proportionate, the Authority would like Potential Suppliers to gauge: • Whether the following Mission and and Outcome is relevant and proportionate to this procurement and could yield some potential benefits: - Mission: Kick start economic growth. to secure the highest sustained growth in the G7 - with good jobs and productivity growth in every part of the country making everyone, not just a few, better off. Outcome: Fair work: that offers fair wages and good working conditions. Help people get a job, stay in work, and progress in their careers, with good employment opportunities across the country. • what they could offer as wider benefits of the wider communications team under their chosen outcomes; • the level of risk of modern slavery in their supply chain; and • whether modern slavery risks can be managed/mitigated within the service or not. Please refer to the Cabinet Office Social Value Policy Note for details of the potential model evaluation questions, model award criteria, model response guidance and reporting metrics for each outcome to help in the assessment: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67ae1529e270ceae39f9e1a0/2025-02-11_PPN_002_The_social_value_model.docx.pdf RESPONSE MHCLG will be hosting an online event via Microsoft Teams to provide further detail on the requirements and to obtain market feedback, in particular to the questions below. The event is due to be held on Monday 8 June 2026 at 14:30 hours. Further information will be shared in advance of the event for those who express an interest and/or register to attend. To register for this event, please respond via commercialtenders@communities.gov.uk with the name and email address of the attendees. The deadline for the receipt of expressions of interest/registrations is 17:00 hours on Wednesday 3 June 2026. The purpose of the event is to allow MHCLG to understand the capacity and appetite of the market to deliver the various elements of this service, to understand any new methods or products are available in the market we could consider adding to the contract and receive feedback about the proposed requirements. It will also be an opportunity for suppliers to raise any clarification questions. MHCLG is specifically looking for responses to the following questions: Q1 Would you be interested in bidding for this project? Q2 Is a single contract for qualitative and quantitative research a suitable approach? Q3 Is what the Authority asking for clear? Q4 What, if anything, has the Authority missed or overlooked in setting out their requirement? Q5 Is there anything here which is irrelevant, outdated or unnecessary? Q6 Are there any innovative new methods/techniques which the Authority could consider? Q7 Which of the proposed Social Value Outcomes would you consider most appropriate for this requirement? Please elaborate on your reasons why you consider these to be more relevant? Q8 In your opinion, what is the level of risk of modern slavery in your supply chain? Can modern slavery risks be managed / mitigated within the service? QUESTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS Potential Suppliers may raise questions or seek clarification regarding any aspect of this PTME document at any time prior to the Response Deadline. MHCLG will respond to questions formally during the online event on Monday 8 June 2026. Questions may also be raised during the online event. Potential Suppliers will be permitted to raise any further questions for a short period following the online event. These questions must be received no later than 12:00 hours on Wednesday 10 June 2026. To ensure that all Potential Suppliers have equal access to information regarding this PTME exercise, responses to questions raised by Potential Suppliers will be published in a "Questions and Answers" document, which will also be circulated by email to those attending the online event - and included in the final Invitation To Tender. MHCLG proposes to record the online event, and this recording will also be included in the final Invitation To Tender. Responses to questions will not identify the originator of the question. If a Supplier wishes to ask a question or seek clarification without the question and answer being revealed, then the Supplier must state this in their email and provide its justification for withholding the question and any response. If the Authority does not consider that there is sufficient justification for withholding the question and the corresponding response, the Supplier will be invited to decide whether: the question/clarification and the response should in fact be published; or it wishes to withdraw the question/clarification. GENERAL CONDITIONS This PTME will help the Authority to refine the requirements and to understand the potential level of interest in the delivering requirements. It will also aid Supplier's understanding of the requirements in advance of any formal competitive tender exercise. The Authority reserves the right to change any information contained within this PTME at any time, and Suppliers rely upon it entirely at their own risk. The Authority reserves the right not to proceed with a competitive tender exercise after this PTME or to award any contract. Any and all costs associated with the production of such a response to this PTME must be borne by the Supplier. No down-selection of Suppliers will take place as a consequence of any responses or interactions relating to this PTME. The Authority expects that all responses to this PTME will be provided by Suppliers in good faith to the best of their ability in the light of information available at the time of their response. No information provided by a Supplier in response to this PTME will be carried forward, used or acknowledged in any way for the purpose of evaluating the Supplier, in any subsequent formal procurement process. For the avoidance of doubt, any suppliers who do not participate in the pre-market engagement exercise will still be permitted to take part in the tender exercise and submit a proposal if they choose to do so. RESPONSE Your response to this PTME exercise must be submitted to MHCLG's procurement team via commercialtenders@communities.gov.uk no later than 12:00 hours on Friday 12 June 2026. Suppliers should also use this email address to confirm their registration for the pre-market engagement event on Monday 8 June 2026. Registration for the event will close at 17:00 hours on Wednesday 3 June 2026.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-0696ac
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/072601-2026
Current Stage
Tender
All Stages
Planning, Tender

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK12 - Procurement Termination Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Not Specified
Procurement Method Details
Not specified
Tender Suitability
SME
Awardee Scale
Not specified

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

73 - Research and development services and related consultancy services

CPV Codes

73110000 - Research services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
£10,000,000 £10M-£100M
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
31 Jul 20261 months ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
Not specified
Award Date
Not specified
Contract Period
4 Jan 2027 - 3 Jan 2029 2-3 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
MINISTRY OF HOUSING, COMMUNITIES & LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Contact Name
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Email
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Phone
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →

Buyer Location

Locality
LONDON UNITED KINGDOM
Postcode
SW1P 4DF
Postcode Area
South West London
Country
England
Major Region (ITL 1)
TLI London
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLI3 Inner London - West
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLI35 Westminster and City of London
Delivery Location
Not specified
Local Authority
Westminster
Electoral Ward
St James's
Westminster Constituency
Cities of London and Westminster

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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