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LTC Co Regulatory & Economic Advice / Transition Support

National Highways

This public procurement record has 3 releases in its history.

Award

09 Oct 2026 at 08:56

UK7 - Contract Details Notice
Award

30 Sep 2026 at 10:34

UK6 - Contract Award Notice
Award

30 Sep 2026 at 10:31

UK5 - Transparency Notice
Summary of the contracting process

National Highways Limited commissioned specialist regulatory and economic advice and transition support for the Lower Thames Crossing programme. The work supports the Programme Director in planning and delivering transition arrangements for risk management and regulation, enabling the planned transfer of the crossing to the private sector. This is consultancy in business and management, focused on the regulatory framework and the practical transition of responsibilities. The buyer is National Highways Limited. The procurement concerns the Lower Thames Crossing; no separate delivery address or locality is stated.

The procurement is complete and the contract was awarded to Indepen Limited, an SME. This was a direct award, justified by the incumbent advisers’ detailed project knowledge and the importance of continuity: replacing them was considered likely to cause onboarding costs, duplicated work, delays and inconsistent advice. The award was made on 16 September 2026, and the contract was signed on 9 October 2026. Its period runs from 12 October 2026 to 31 July 2028. The contract value is £310,000 excluding VAT and £372,000 including VAT. The single lot is complete and was marked as suitable for SMEs. The published data does not set out separate scored evaluation criteria.

This award shows that National Highways needs specialist advice at the intersection of regulation, economic matters, risk management and major-project transition. A credible competitor for a future requirement would need demonstrable knowledge of the project’s regulatory framework, stakeholder expectations and programme risks, alongside the ability to advise senior programme leadership and support transition planning. The buyer’s stated rationale makes continuity and rapid mobilisation commercially important: suppliers would need to show how they can preserve institutional knowledge, avoid disruptive handovers and deliver consistent advice to critical programme milestones. The single lot was considered suitable for SMEs, indicating that a specialist consultancy of SME scale could compete, provided it can offer the required expertise and delivery capacity.

How relevant is this notice?

Notice Information

Notice Title

LTC Co Regulatory & Economic Advice / Transition Support

Notice Description

To provide specialist advice and support to the Programme Director in the planning and delivery of transition arrangements around risk management / regulation to enable successful delivery of the private sector transfer of Lower Thames Crossing .

Procurement Information

Retaining the existing regulatory advisors, on the project provides clear commercial, programme, and risk management benefits: The current advisors have developed a detailed understanding of the project's regulatory framework, key risks, and stakeholder expectations. Replacing them would result in a loss of knowledge, requiring significant time and cost to onboard new advisors. Introducing new advisors at this stage would create avoidable delays while they familiarise themselves with the project, potentially impacting critical milestones. Maintaining the existing team supports continuity and protects the programme timeline. Transitioning to new advisors would incur duplication of work, additional onboarding costs, and inefficiencies during the handover period. Retention avoids these unnecessary expenditures. Changing advisors risks inconsistency in outputs and could undermine prior work or require revalidation.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-077d35
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/095460-2026
Current Stage
Award
All Stages
Award

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK7 - Contract Details Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Direct
Procurement Method Details
Direct award
Tender Suitability
SME
Awardee Scale
SME

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

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

CPV Codes

79410000 - Business and management consultancy services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
Not specified
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
£310,000 £100K-£500K
Contracts Value
£310,000 £100K-£500K

Notice Dates

Publication Date
9 Oct 2026Yesterday
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
Not specified
Award Date
16 Sep 20263 weeks ago
Contract Period
12 Oct 2026 - 31 Jul 2028 1-2 years
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Complete
Lots Status
Complete
Awards Status
Active
Contracts Status
Active

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
National Highways
Contact Name
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Email
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Phone
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →

Buyer Location

Locality
BIRMINGHAM
Postcode
B4 6GA
Postcode Area
Birmingham
Country
England
Major Region (ITL 1)
TLG West Midlands (England)
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLG3 West Midlands
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLG31 Birmingham
Delivery Location
Not specified
Local Authority
Birmingham
Electoral Ward
Ladywood
Westminster Constituency
Birmingham Ladywood

Supplier Information

Number of Suppliers
1
Supplier Name

Indepen Limited

Further Information

Notice Documents

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

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