Land purchase services

Tender description

HS2 Ltd is intending to establish a framework agreement for the provision of land and property acquisitions services. The suppliers appointed to the framework agreement will form a critical part of HS2 Ltd's capability to acquire the land required for the HS2 railway as they will undertake the majority of the engagement with affected parties, taking possession and negotiating compensation. The suppliers will be required to provide in-depth, expert and flexible support to enable the acquisition and valuation of properties and negotiation of compensation claims. The suppliers will also be required to handback land and property that is no longer required by HS2 Ltd to the relevant affected parties. For the avoidance of doubt, valuations under the discretionary schemes (need to sell scheme and rural support zone scheme) are undertaken under a separate contracting arrangement. In order to meet HS2 Ltd’s land and property acquisitions services requirements, a framework agreement for Phase 1 of the HS2 project is to be established. This will replace the existing framework agreement. The purpose of this Periodic indicative notice (PIN) is to issue a pre-market engagement questionnaire to understand the level of appetite within the market, and to gain feedback on the proposed contracting strategy. Suppliers will be required to manage a range of cases as defined by the following case lifecycle: — early engagement, — engagement during the notice period and planning for possession, — taking possession, — settling compensation, — handback. The supplier will also be required to secure utility land rights. Requirements will be aligned to the case lifecycle above, and in many cases affected parties will be impacted by both land take and utility works. The exact properties and interests subject to this framework may include but are not limited to: — residential properties, — agricultural holdings, — commercial properties, — community facilities, — utility land rights, and — atypical properties and interests including, but not limited to, mines and mineral rights, rights of way, rights of drainage and other third party rights. This may include interests outside of safeguarding (which is an established part of the planning process designed to ensure that land which has been identified for major infrastructure projects is protected from conflicted developments). It is anticipated that the land and property acquisitions services framework will consist of up to 6 suppliers and will be awarded for an initial period of 4 years, with the option to extend by a further 4 years via single or multiple fixed terms.