Schools Property Flood Resilience: Regional Providers (Design and Build)

UPDATE - 30 July 2026.

In respect of the Lot 3: West Midlands and South (excluding London) and Lot 4: London only, the standstill period has been extended to end at midnight on Wednesday 12th August 2026.

The date for standstill end of 4th August 2026 (8 working days) is overridden and replaced by this update and no longer applies. This update is in respect of Lots 3 and 4 only. The earliest date the contract will be signed for Lots 3 and 4 is now is 13/08/2026.

For the avoidance of doubt the standstill period is not extended for any other Lot. The original standstill deadline of 5pm on the 4th August shall remain in respect of Lots 1, 2 and 5.

The Schools Water Strategy is an “invest to save” strategy aimed at reducing the risk of flooding in schools. This planned procurement is to enable the expansion of the current Property Flood Resilience (PFR) installations across the school estate, specifically targeting members of the Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA) for schools in high-risk flood areas and schools that have suffered repeated flooding disruption.

This procurement is looking for Potential Suppliers with the capability in their own organisations or with named supply chain partners to design and build property flood resilience solutions across both grey and green (nature-based) categories.

The maximum contract value including optional extensions across all Lots is £100 million (excluding VAT). The initial 3 year contract term is valued at £57 million across all Lots, equating to roughly £11.4 million per Lot.

The DfE is looking to award 5 regional contracts that will deliver PFR measures in specific schools (selected by the DfE based upon flood risk) in each region. The procurement will be structured into five regional Lots to ensure equal coverage across England. Each Lot will be split into regions as follow:

• Lot 1: North West

• Lot 2: North East

• Lot 3: West Midlands and South (excluding London)

• Lot 4: London

• Lot 5: East Midlands and East of England

Each Lot will have a target to complete a minimum of 10 schools per year over the contract period; however, suppliers would be expected to work on more than 10 projects a year to achieve the targets, accounting for potential slippage. Each Lot is equal in the scope of works.

Bidders will be able to apply for all five Lots but will only be awarded a maximum of three Lots. The planned procurement will follow an Open Competitive Procedure, and the evaluation will use a price-per-quality-point methodology.