IN Brief:
- The national framework covers 13 regions across England and Scotland and lists 41 suppliers at the published award stage.
- Work scopes include excavation, foundations, drainage, sewers, roads, utilities, and other early site infrastructure.
- The reported £294.8m is an estimated value including VAT; the procurement standstill runs to 12 November 2026.
Places for People has named 41 suppliers across its national groundworks framework, covering 13 geographical lots in England and Scotland. The four-year arrangement has an estimated procurement value of £294.8m including VAT, equivalent to approximately £245.7m excluding VAT. The figures represent the anticipated value of work available through the framework, rather than construction contracts already placed with the appointed businesses.
The award notice, published on 3 November following procurement earlier in the year, identifies suppliers including Coinford Central, RJ McLeod, M&J Evans Construction, Houlihan & Co, MV Kelly, Erith, Tamdown, and O’Halloran & O’Brien. The appointments cover work for Places for People Group and its development business. Being named on the framework establishes a procurement route; it does not establish an order book or entitlement to projects in any region.
Groundworks packages span the earliest physical stages of housing delivery, including site clearance, bulk excavation, cut-and-fill operations, trenching, retaining structures, and the formation of foundations. They also cover drainage, utilities, sewers, roads, and external works. These activities determine whether a development platform, service connections, and access arrangements are ready for the main building sequence, so the framework’s scope extends beyond the narrow definition of foundations alone.
The regional structure allows the developer to select contractors according to the location and characteristics of individual sites. The 13 lots cover the North West, Yorkshire, the West Midlands, the East Midlands, two areas of the South East, three areas of the South West, Greater London, and three Scottish regions. Regional packages are important where local ground conditions, haulage distances, discharge consents, and relationships with statutory utility undertakers affect what can be delivered economically and in what sequence.
The published lot values suggest the largest indicative regional allocation is in Greater London, at approximately £38m excluding VAT. Berkshire, Hampshire, and Dorset account for about £30m, while the eastern South East area has an indicative £29m allocation. These are notional procurement values, not budgets attached to named sites, and they cannot be used to calculate guaranteed turnover for the selected contractors.
Framework appointments allow the developer to call off work as projects become ready, subject to the agreements and any further procurement steps. Before a contractor can mobilise, the site still needs adequate ground investigations, design information, utility plans, and an agreed delivery programme. The resulting contract value and risk allocation will depend on each scheme, not simply on the supplier’s presence on one or more regional lots.
The procurement documents describe groundworks as an integrated package running from preparation of the site through to formation of the substructure. In practice, excavation levels need to be reconciled with geotechnical conditions and the formation depth required by the structural design. Drainage gradients, underground service corridors, temporary support, and access for deliveries can then govern the sequence of work. Where the same contractor undertakes roads, sewers, foundations, and external works, interfaces between those activities can be managed within a single package, although responsibilities still depend on the individual call-off scope.
For the Scottish lots, the scope extends in places from foundation work to completed in-situ concrete ground floors, with plot drainage, retaining wall foundations, and ducting for electric vehicle charging infrastructure also specified. Those elements need coordination before the concrete pour: drainage falls and service entry points must match the building design, while sleeves, ducts, and reinforcement must be positioned without compromising the intended structural layout.
Contractors with places across several lots may be able to serve multiple developments as a programme grows, while regional specialists retain a route into work concentrated closer to their operating bases. The structure also gives Places for People a pool of suppliers for sites with different levels of ground risk and infrastructure complexity. It does not, however, remove the need to assess contractor capacity, mobilisation periods, and site-specific methodology when individual packages are allocated.
The four-year framework follows a tendering exercise begun earlier in 2026. Although the award notice names 41 suppliers, the published timetable includes a standstill period extending to 12 November. Any commencement date remains subject to that procurement process and subsequent contract arrangements. In the meantime, the announcement establishes the proposed supplier panel rather than completed agreements or confirmed construction starts.
Groundworks form a significant early commitment on housing schemes because they are usually required before the superstructure can advance. Unexpected buried obstructions, unsuitable excavated material, contamination, or changes in service requirements can create programme exposure, but the award notice does not establish whether those risks are transferred to any particular supplier. Their allocation will depend on future contracts, design responsibilities, surveys, and the agreed terms for individual development packages.
The immediate milestone is the conclusion of the procurement standstill, after which the framework can support individual groundworks appointments as Places for People schemes progress. The value of those instructions, the sites brought forward, and the timing of excavation and infrastructure works have yet to be determined in published call-off information.
