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Grounds Maintenance and Gardening Servces

First Garden Cities Homes

This public procurement record has 2 releases in its history.

PlanningUpdate

03 Sep 2026 at 10:01

UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Planning

08 Jun 2026 at 17:38

UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Summary of the contracting process

First Garden Cities Homes, an English registered provider of social housing, intends to procure grounds maintenance and gardening services for its approximately 2,400 homes. The work covers around 65 locations across North Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire and is intended to maintain the appearance, condition and presentation of grounds in its Garden Cities communities. The requirement is planned to include routine grounds maintenance and gardening, plus planned and responsive tree maintenance across the organisation’s properties. The grounds maintenance work is expected to be split geographically into two lots of broadly similar volume, creating manageable delivery areas for providers of different sizes. A third lot has been added for tree services. This is a services procurement for an established housing provider.

The procurement is at the planning stage and the buyer intends to hold market engagement before publishing a tender; it is not yet an invitation to tender. The active engagement phase has been delayed by the GIS mapping project and internal resource constraints and is planned for the final two weeks of September 2026, with supplier meetings to follow. The current contract ends on 31 December 2026. The planned replacement contract is expected to run from 1 January 2027 to 31 December 2031, with renewal provisions allowing activity to continue until 31 December 2036. The procurement is above threshold. No estimated contract value is stated. The final specification will reflect resident consultation and completed GIS mapping.

This will suit grounds maintenance contractors, horticultural service providers and tree-care specialists able to deliver reliably across multiple housing locations in North Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. The buyer expects at least some operatives attending each site to hold relevant horticultural qualifications or have demonstrable equivalent experience, so bidders should be able to evidence workforce competence and a dependable deployment model. Tree-service providers should be prepared for planned and responsive work across all properties. The buyer is particularly interested in environmental initiatives, social value, practical support for SME participation, and innovations that improve quality, efficiency and sustainability. Suppliers should use the market engagement period to explain their delivery methods, technology, ideas and approach to maintaining consistently high standards.

How relevant is this notice?

Notice Information

Notice Title

Grounds Maintenance and Gardening Servces

Notice Description

First Garden Cities Homes Limited is an English Registered Provider of Social Housing. We were formed on 1 March 2020 through the amalgamation of Howard Cottage Housing Association and Welwyn Garden City Housing Association, two organisations with a combined history of over 170 years of providing affordable homes. Howard Cottage HA was established in 1911 to provide affordable housing in Letchworth, the world's first Garden City, whilst the eponymous Welwyn Garden City HA was founded fifty years later for the same purpose. Today, First Garden Cities Homes is a modern, dynamic 2400 homes housing association with an active development programme and deep roots in its communities. Our current contract for the Grounds Maintenance and Gardening Services services expires on 31/12/2026 and there is no option to extend or renew in a manner compliant with the Procurement Act 2023. We are now starting the process of procuring a new contract to provide the services. A GIS mapping project has already been commissioned to ensure that we have the most accurate information available about the scope and volume of the works at approximately 65 locations across North Herts and Beds. This will be completed prior to tender publication and form part of the tender pack. We are now accepting expressions of interest for participation in a market engagement exercise ahead of publishing a tender. The Grounds Maintenance requirement will be divided into two lots of broadly similar volume, organised by geography, to create a manageable scale of delivery for providers of different sizes. On 3rd September the decision was taken to add a 3rd lot for the provision of planned and responsive tree maintenance services across all of our properties. The relevant CPV codes have been added to this notice. Our homes sit within a Garden Cities context, and the appearance and condition of the grounds are central to the identity of these places and to the pride residents take in them. A consistently high quality, well presented standard of finish is therefore essential, and we do not believe this can be achieved through solely unskilled labour. We will expect at least some of the operatives attending site on every occasion to hold relevant horticultural qualifications or demonstrable equivalent experience, and we are interested in how providers structure and deploy their workforce to meet this standard reliably. Environmental responsibility and social value matter to us. We welcome approaches that advance environmental initiatives across our sites, and we are keen to understand how SMEs can be supported to compete to further our social value aims. We also invite innovation. We want to hear how providers would bring new methods, technology and ideas to improve quality, efficiency and sustainability. We have recently concluded a consultation exercise with our residents to understand the levels of quality and detail they expect from the service, and the outcome of that work will inform our final specification. Once this is complete we will contact interested parties to arrange meetings to give potential suppliers the opportunity to shape this procurement. **************************************** NOTE: This notice has been amended in order to include the 3rd Lot for Tree Services. If you have previously registered your interest and received an acknowledgement, you do not need to do so again.

Planning Information

Due to delays with the GIS mapping project and internal resource constraints the active phase of the market engagement process has been pushed back to the last 2 weeks in September. If you have already registered, there is no need to do so again, however if you wish to register interest in Lot 3, planned and responsive tree maintenance services, please register using the email address in this notice.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-06b04b
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/083314-2026
Current Stage
Planning
All Stages
Planning

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement 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

77 - Agricultural, forestry, horticultural, aquacultural and apicultural services

CPV Codes

77211300 - Tree-clearing services

77211400 - Tree-cutting services

77211500 - Tree-maintenance services

77314000 - Grounds maintenance services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
Not specified
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
3 Sep 20261 months ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
3 Aug 2026Expired
Award Date
Not specified
Contract Period
1 Jan 2027 - 31 Dec 2031 Over 5 years
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Planning
Lots Status
Planning
Awards Status
Not Specified
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
First Garden Cities Homes
Contact Name
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Email
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Phone
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →

Buyer Location

Locality
LETCHWORTH GARDEN CITY
Postcode
SG6 1NY
Postcode Area
Stevenage
Country
England
Major Region (ITL 1)
TLH East (England)
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLH2 Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLH26 North and East Hertfordshire
Delivery Location
TLH2 Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire
Local Authority
North Hertfordshire
Electoral Ward
Letchworth South West
Westminster Constituency
North East Hertfordshire

Further Information

Notice Documents

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

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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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