IN Brief:
- EEM is procuring a four-year fire safety and building remediation framework valued at £800m including VAT.
- Ten lots cover major remediation works, consultancy, fire doors, and associated active and passive fire safety work.
- Contractors must demonstrate Building Safety Act capability on the principal works lots, including support for Gateway and Golden Thread requirements.
Efficiency East Midlands has opened bidding for an £800 million fire safety, fire doors, and building remediation framework intended to give public-sector members access to works and consultancy services across residential and non-residential property.
The EEM0053 framework was published on 19 August 2026 and is due to replace EEM’s existing passive fire protection arrangement when that expires in November. The new framework is scheduled to run from 8 February 2027 to 10 February 2031, with tenders due by 2pm on 28 October and an estimated award decision on 13 January 2027.
Ten lots divide the procurement between major fire safety and remediation works, consultancy, and fire-door supply and installation. EEM can appoint up to eight contractors to each lot, with reserve arrangements also available under the procurement structure.
The two principal works lots cover the Midlands and national delivery across England and Wales. Each carries an estimated value of £350 million including VAT, although the notice states that framework lot values may be shared with other lots, so the figures represent procurement ceilings rather than guaranteed workloads.
Remediation scope extends beyond passive fire
The principal works packages cover external-wall, façade, and cladding remediation alongside cavity barriers, fire doors, intrusive investigations, general refurbishment, enabling works, and making good. They can also include active systems such as alarms, emergency lighting, sprinklers, watermist, smoke control, evacuation alert systems, risers, dampers, and associated testing and maintenance where required as part of a wider solution.
The framework also asks contractors to support Building Regulations and Building Safety Act compliance, including higher-risk building work, Gateway 2 and Gateway 3 processes, Golden Thread information, and digital quality assurance. The procurement consequently moves beyond a traditional schedule of passive-fire repairs into the wider evidence and design-management requirements now attached to building remediation.
For occupied buildings, the specification includes resident liaison and delivery around live properties. External-wall work, compartmentation repairs, door replacement, and active-fire upgrades can all affect access and day-to-day use, requiring contractors to manage temporary protection, sequencing, communication, and reinstatement alongside the technical work itself.
Consultancy lots provide a separate route for fire strategies, risk assessments, surveys, building inspections, and related technical advice, while six fire-door sublots distinguish between composite, timber, and internal timber doors and between supply-only and supply-and-installation requirements. Members can therefore procure a broad remediation package or isolate narrower specialist requirements.
Building safety evidence becomes part of delivery
Evaluation of the main works lots gives quality a 50% weighting, price 40%, and social value 10%. Within the presentation element, EEM assigns specific marks to experience, a delivery scenario, and Building Safety Act capability, making regulatory competence a scored part of contractor selection rather than a generic declaration.
The requirement sits against a large remaining remediation market. Government data published in July recorded 4,469 residential buildings of 11 metres and above with unsafe cladding whose remediation progress was being monitored at the end of June. Of those, 2,379 had started or completed works, including 1,681 completed buildings, while 2,090 remained in programme without works started.
Building Safety Regulator figures show that Gateway 2 performance has improved, but approvals continue to require substantial lead time. In the 12 weeks to 1 August, new higher-risk buildings and conversions recorded a 91% approval rate and median determination time of 22 weeks, while external remediation achieved an 85% approval rate with a 34-week median.
Those periods make pre-construction information a programme issue as much as a compliance issue. Contractors cannot sensibly plan mobilisation around rapid approval if design information, change control, fire strategy, or evidence remains incomplete, particularly on occupied higher-risk buildings where redesign after work begins carries additional cost and disruption.
The framework is available to authorised EEM users, including publicly funded organisations beyond housing associations. That breadth means appointed suppliers could face markedly different buildings and operational constraints during the four-year term, from occupied residential blocks to public facilities where closure is difficult.
A minimum annual turnover of £500,000 is set as a participation condition, but the largest works packages will still favour contractors able to combine design management, specialist fire capability, resident liaison, evidence control, and supply-chain coordination. Subcontractors and manufacturers will in turn be judged increasingly by the documentation and traceability accompanying the physical product or installation.
The tender closes on 28 October. EEM’s £800 million ceiling is sizeable, but the procurement structure is the more revealing part of the opportunity: ten lots, explicit Building Safety Act capability, access to a broad public-sector client base, and quality carrying more weight than price alone.
