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Western Range Planning Communications Consultant

The British Museum

This public procurement record has 1 release in its history.

Tender

22 Sep 2026 at 16:05

UK4 - Tender Notice
Summary of the contracting process

The British Museum is seeking a planning communications consultant for its Western Range redevelopment in Bloomsbury, central London. The service covers specialist, project-specific communications on Town and Country Planning matters throughout pre-application, planning submission and determination, with possible support after determination, including discharge of planning conditions. The work supports a major redevelopment of around 15,000 square metres across 10 buildings, including gallery space and collection storage, within a Grade I and Grade II listed estate. Delivery will take place in a live museum and heritage environment, alongside visitors, staff, collections and construction activity. The requirement is a professional service combining urban planning support and public relations consultancy.

The procurement has reached tender: the British Museum invited offers through an open procedure managed electronically via the Delta eSourcing portal. Enquiries were due by 15 October 2026 at 12:00, and tender submissions are due by 23 October 2026 at 15:00. The award decision is scheduled for 9 November 2026. The contract is planned to run from 19 November 2026 to 31 October 2028, with an option to extend into post-determination work. Its estimated value is £250,000 excluding VAT, or £300,000 including VAT. There is one lot. Evaluation is based on quality at 70% and price at 30%. Bidders must sign a non-negotiable confidentiality agreement to access the tender pack.

This opportunity suits planning communications consultancies with strong experience of Town and Country Planning processes, planning applications and communications with statutory, approving and community stakeholders. Suppliers should be able to support coordinated communications from pre-application engagement through submission and determination, and potentially manage revised applications, amended determination routes and the discharge of planning conditions. Relevant capability includes working on complex heritage or listed-building projects, constrained urban sites and major developments delivered within an operational public-facing environment. Experience coordinating multiple stakeholders, restricted access, neighbouring property interfaces, construction logistics and the protection or movement of sensitive collections would be particularly relevant. The procurement is identified as suitable for SMEs and VCSEs.

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Notice Information

Notice Title

Western Range Planning Communications Consultant

Notice Description

The British Museum brings together the history of humankind, all cultures of the world spanning millennia. It connects us to our past and to each other. It is a place where everyone is welcome, where many voices meet to understand, and to question what brings us together and what separates us. It is a place of exploration and a place of inspiration. The collection that the Museum holds in trust for the world is of unparalleled breadth, depth, beauty and significance. A truly global resource, free and available to everyone. The Museum's role is to enhance and make accessible the collection through research, through interpretation, through display, through lending, and to share what it learns, as well as the process of learning, with others. With this matchless position comes a responsibility to ensure that this work can continue, ensuring the collection is cared for and accessible for generations to come, and that the Museum remains a centre of excellence and is continually relevant into the 21st century. The physical manifestation of the British Museum in Bloomsbury is iconic. It comprises almost an entire city block in one of the most intricate and established parts of central London. It is a treasured national icon within a conservation area that is, in itself, emblematic of the Capital. The Museum has an internal floor area of over 100,000m2, within a footprint that is packed with a diversity of buildings; the estate is Grade I listed, with perimeter properties that are listed Grade II. Each part of the Museum contains, iconic, often sizeable and irreplaceable items from the collection, and each is visited by many thousands of people, every day. Space on the site is both limited and precious, especially in terms of gallery spaces. The original quadrangle was designed for 100,000 visitors per annum, a figure that was already far exceeded in the 1850s. As it stands, annual visitor numbers to the Museum now regularly exceed six million. Today, there are heightened security requirements and a fundamental need to ensure inclusivity and access, as well as enabling intuitive wayfinding, addressing dilapidations, and creating an environment where people can connect with the collection, and by doing so, with each other. The Western Range Programme focuses on a substantial part of the estate that is in urgent need of both repair and re-imagining. This offers the Museum an opportunity to make a statement of its future intent, through reimagined galleries, new state-of-the-art storage facilities and engaging contemporary architecture, in juxtaposition to the highly significant and already celebrated listed buildings on the site. A multi-disciplinary design team led by Lina Ghotmeh Architecture has been selected to deliver the Western Range programme which is currently at the end of RIBA Stage 2 in the design process. Despite appearing as a single entity, the Western Range comprises a miscellany of 10 separate buildings which have been added to Robert Smirke's original Grade I listed Museum; as a result, the exact extent of the red-line boundary and phasing for this project is dependent on a number of interlocking considerations. The proposed project outline can be seen in the attached documentation. In the region of 15,000m2, it accounts for almost 15% of the floor space within the Bloomsbury site, in a warren of inflexible and static rooms. Further, recent surveys indicate that the existing building fabric and infrastructure are in a state that is below modern expectations. It comprises around 7,500m2 of gallery space and currently houses the Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece (including the Parthenon Sculptures), Rome, and Ancient Assyria and Middle East collections, along with 4,500m2 of back-of-house collection storage. The delivery of the Western Range redevelopment will take place within a complex and highly sensitive operational environment, requiring construction works to be carefully planned and coordinated alongside the ongoing activities of the British Museum. As a live cultural institution, the Museum must continue to provide safe and effective access for visitors and staff, while ensuring the protection, movement, and management of its collections throughout the construction period. The project presents a number of unique challenges, including working within a heritage setting, constrained site conditions, restricted access, neighbouring property interfaces, complex logistics requirements, and the need to coordinate multiple stakeholder requirements. A Planning Communications Consultant is therefore required to provide specialist, project-specific expertise to develop and deliver coordinated communications services in relation to Town and Country Planning matters for the Western Range programme throughout the pre-application, planning submission, determination and, if instructed, post determination processes. Full details of the scope of services required are contained in the associated tender documents. Due to the confidential/commercially sensitive nature of information that will be included in the associated tender documents we require that interested suppliers enter into a confidentiality agreement before they are given access to the tender pack. A copy of the confidentiality agreement is available by request via email to procurement@britishmuseum.org. The terms of the confidentiality agreement are not subject to negotiation. As soon as practical after the receipt of completed confidentiality agreements, interested suppliers will be granted access to the tender documents.

Lot Information

Lot 1

Options: The initial term of the contract will cover pre-application, planning submission and determination related activities. The progression into post-determination activities, including discharge of planning conditions, will be subject to an option to extend.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-0777e2
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/089801-2026
Current Stage
Tender
All Stages
Tender

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK4 - Tender Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Open
Procurement Method Details
Open procedure
Tender Suitability
SME, VCSE
Awardee Scale
Not specified

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

71 - Architectural, construction, engineering and inspection services

79 - Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security

CPV Codes

71410000 - Urban planning services

79416200 - Public relations consultancy services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
£250,000 £100K-£500K
Lots Value
£250,000 £100K-£500K
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
22 Sep 20262 weeks ago
Submission Deadline
23 Oct 20263 weeks to go
Future Notice Date
Not specified
Award Date
Not specified
Contract Period
19 Nov 2026 - 31 Oct 2028 1-2 years
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Active
Lots Status
Active
Awards Status
Not Specified
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
The British Museum
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
Postcode
WC1B 3DG
Postcode Area
Central London
Country
England
Major Region (ITL 1)
TLI London
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLI3 Inner London - West
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLI36 Camden
Delivery Location
TLI London
Local Authority
Camden
Electoral Ward
Bloomsbury
Westminster Constituency
Holborn and St Pancras

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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