---
title: "LTC Co Regulatory & Economic Advice / Transition Support"
ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-077d35"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-077d35"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-077d35.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-077d35.json"
source: "Find A Tender Service"
current_stage: "Award"
buyer: "National Highways"
published: "2026-09-30"
---

# LTC Co Regulatory & Economic Advice / Transition Support

Buyer: National Highways  
Current stage: Award  
OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-077d35

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## Summary

National Highways Limited procured specialist regulatory and economic advice and transition support for the Lower Thames Crossing programme. The adviser is to support the Programme Director with planning and delivering arrangements for transferring the project to the private sector, focusing on risk management and regulation. This is a business and management consultancy service, rather than construction or engineering delivery. The requirement concerns the Lower Thames Crossing project; no more specific delivery location is identified. The advice is intended to help enable the transfer and support successful delivery of the programme.

The procurement is complete and has been awarded to Indepen Limited. The award was made on 16 September 2026, with a contract period from 12 October 2026 to 31 July 2028. The award is valued at £310,000 excluding VAT (£372,000 including VAT). The process used a direct award, justified by the incumbent advisers’ detailed knowledge of the regulatory framework, risks and stakeholders, and the need to avoid knowledge loss, onboarding costs, duplication, delay and inconsistent advice. There was one lot, marked as suitable for small and medium-sized businesses. No scored evaluation criteria are stated.

This award shows that National Highways uses external consultancy for specialist regulatory and economic advice on the Lower Thames Crossing, including support for risk management and a complex transition to private-sector delivery. A credible competitor for a future requirement would need demonstrable expertise in regulation and economics relevant to major infrastructure programmes, alongside strong programme and risk-management capability. Experience of advising senior programme leadership, understanding stakeholder expectations, and planning transitions without disrupting delivery would be particularly relevant. The buyer’s rationale for retaining its existing adviser highlights the commercial importance of established project knowledge, continuity of advice and consistent outputs. Smaller consultancies can be suitable for this type of work, but would need to show they can provide the necessary specialist capacity and quickly build or retain deep project understanding.

## Notice

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.

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Find A Tender Service |
| Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/092212-2026 |
| Notice type | UK6 - Contract Award Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Services |
| Procurement method | Direct |
| Procurement method details | Direct award |
| Tender suitability | SME |
| Awardee scale | SME |
| All stages | Award |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 30 Sep 2026 |
| Submission deadline | Not specified |
| Future notice date | Not specified |
| Award date | 16 Sep 2026 |
| Contract period | 12 Oct 2026 - 31 Jul 2028 |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | Not specified |
| Lots value | Not specified |
| Awards value | £310,000 |
| Contracts value | Not specified |

## Status

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender status | Complete |
| Lots status | Complete |
| Awards status | Active |
| Contracts status | Not specified |

## Buyer

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Main buyer | National Highways |
| Locality | BIRMINGHAM |
| Postcode area | Birmingham |
| Postcode | B4 6GA |
| Country | England |
| ITL 1 | TLG West Midlands (England) |
| ITL 2 | TLG3 West Midlands |
| ITL 3 | TLG31 Birmingham |
| Local authority | Birmingham |
| Electoral ward | Ladywood |
| Westminster constituency | Birmingham Ladywood |
| Delivery location | Not specified |

## Supplier

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Number of suppliers | 1 |
| Supplier names | Indepen Limited |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

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

### Codes

- 79410000 - Business and management consultancy services

## Release History

- 30 Sep 2026 at 10:34 - Award - UK6 - Contract Award Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/092212-2026
- 30 Sep 2026 at 10:31 - Award - UK5 - Transparency Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/092209-2026

## Documents

- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/092212-2026
  30th September 2026 - Contract award notice on Find a Tender
- https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/092209-2026
  30th September 2026 - Transparency notice on Find a Tender

## Notice URLs

- https://nationalhighways.co.uk
- https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/54/contents

## Provenance

This Markdown file is an alternate public rendering of the D3 Tenders contract record. The canonical page is https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-077d35. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-077d35.json.