Tenders

Invitation to Quote: Cheshire and Warrington Devolution – Rural Strategy Group. Rural Needs Analysis – Evidence Base, Engagement and Priorities

ECW, on behalf of C&W Local Authorities and the C&W Rural Strategy Group, is seeking a consultant(s) to deliver a robust Rural Needs Analysis that will strengthen the rural evidence base and inform devolution planning and future investment priorities. Cheshire and Warrington’s rural areas are home to a significant proportion of the sub-region’s population and businesses, and play a vital role in its economy, environment, and sense of place.

In C&W, the existing rural devolution workstream has defined the rural economy broadly, with the inclusion of agriculture (especially dairy), and land-based industries but also hosts other diverse sectors e.g. visitor economy, food & drink manufacturing, renewable energy and nature-based solutions, agri-tech & bio-renewables, financial & professional services, logistics, digital, creative & healthcare tech. Rural areas have a mix of SME’s and micro businesses as well as some large companies e.g. those associated with the Cheshire Science Corridor.

This project will provide the intelligence, data and evidence base needed to strengthen the case for rural investment, shape policy, and prioritise interventions. It will combine quantitative and qualitative analysis with extensive stakeholder engagement to ensure that local voices and perspectives across all relevant rural-related themes are captured. As part of the work, consultants will assist C&W stakeholders to review the definition/s of the rural economy, given recent changes to government taxonomies, and put forward a C&W position on the rural economy, and the key issues to address, that will help lay the foundation for the approach to rural within a devolved context.

The work will sit within the context of the Cheshire and Warrington Sustainable and Inclusive Economic Strategy (SIES) and its evidence base and will need to build on and complement work done at Local Authority level. It will also need to form part of the wider C&W investment and policy context. Consultants will be able to access the existing SIES’s economic evidence base (2022) and the emerging/updated Strategy and will need to collate and summarise the existing evidence base as far as possible as part of the work.

REQUIREMENT

The commissioned work will:

• Review, refresh, and deepen the rural evidence base, which is currently uneven across the three local authorities and limited at a Cheshire & Warrington level, and contextualise against relevant benchmarks.
• Gather and analyse new intelligence on the rural economy, communities, and environment. Establish the current and emerging needs of rural residents, businesses and places and understand opportunities.
• Benchmark Cheshire and Warrington against other rural and semi-rural Combined Authority areas (e.g. North East, Cornwall, Cambridgeshire & Peterborough), drawing lessons and examples of best practice.
• Provide an evidence base that underpins policy development and strengthens the case for rural investment through devolution levers.
• Recommend priority areas for rural investment, aligned with national policy, local devolution arrangements, and Cheshire and Warrington’s economic agenda.
• Carry out wide stakeholder engagement including supporting the design and facilitation of a rural strand within a wider Devolution Conference in January 2026 to engage stakeholders in shaping local priorities.

Budget

There is a budget of up to £25,000 minus VAT which is to be inclusive of all expenses.

TIMESCALES

• Issue brief for procurement - 22/10/25
• Deadline for submissions - 5/11/25 4pm
• Interviews (if required) - 10/11/25
• Appointment of successful provider - 11/11/25
• Inception meeting - 12/11/25
• Completion of work - 20/3/26

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Bidders are required to submit tenders in an electronic format (i.e. MS Word/PDF) setting out the following:

• Introduction
• Project Appreciation (conformance to specification)
• Approach and methodology for the commission
• Demonstration of experience of providing similar services across both rural research and policy, and economic development, ideally with experience in a devolution context including 2 references.
• Knowledge, expertise and relevant experience of the proposed consultant team including CVs one A4 page summary per person)
• Approach to project management, risk and quality assurance, including submission of a 1-2 page high level project plan
• Value for money, including pricing schedule

All prices must be fixed and firm, quoted in pounds sterling and exclusive of VAT. Tenders should detail any ancillary costs and expenses included in the price.

If you require any clarifications relating to the information contained within this invitation to quote please contact Melissa Crellin (contact details below) before 12:00 noon on 28th October. Responses to requests for clarification may not materially change any of the elements of the tenders submitted. Any additional information provided by ECW as a result of requests for clarification will be made available to all potential bidders.

Tender contact:
Melissa Crellin, Strategy and Public Affairs Director
melissa.crellin@cheshireandwarrington.com

Invitation to Tender: Regional Clean Energy Skills Coordination and Action Planning

This procurement exercise is being conducted as a below threshold open tender.

ECW, working with the North West Net Zero Hub, Net Zero North West, and a range of other organisations, is seeking to appoint an individual consultant or small group of consultants to build a regional approach to meeting the clean energy skills and labour gap across the North West, and in partnership with relevant neighbouring regions. The work is funded by DESNZ and the Office for Clean Energy Jobs. The consultants will need to identify one to two people who will be available to act as the regional Lead for an agreed number of days per week, for the length of the project.

The Clean Energy Sector definition includes: Offshore Wind; Onshore Wind; Solar; Nuclear fusion; Nuclear fission; Smart Systems and Flexibility; Electricity Networks; Hydrogen; Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage; Greenhouse Gas Removals; Domestic & Non-Domestic Heat Pumps; Heat Networks; Biomethane; Energy Efficiency and Retrofit. 

Through our previous research we have identified the scale of the challenge in filling workforce requirements in the Clean Energy sector, including:

• Demand for an estimated 39,000 workers in clean energy jobs by 2028/9 in the North West and North Wales (predicated on current understanding of the investment pipeline and modelled demand)
• At least 16,000 new workers are needed in the next 4-5 years
• Short, targeted, upskilling is also needed for the c.23,000 people in the current workforce to enable them to work in clean energy roles

The consultant will engage senior and other stakeholders to develop an action plan which enables us to collectively meet this challenge, and to ensure that local people and the local supply chain benefit from the energy transition. The plan will identify funding partners and scope out mutually beneficial projects, enabling the consortia to secure new private and public sector investment into skills provision.

Background

The recent North West Clean Power Paper makes clear the North West’s ambitions to deliver on the Government’s Clean Power Mission. The major energy and infrastructure projects in the North West are key to unlocking Clean Power 2030 and Industrial Decarbonisation. They are key to economic growth across our region – attracting major private and public (via Great British Energy) investment to nationally significant infrastructure projects.

The recent ‘Regional Skills Pilot – Cheshire West and Chester (CW&C)’ identified substantial new skills and workforce demands in the near term for delivery of our clean energy ambitions. This demand spike starts in Cheshire West and Chester, and in neighbouring local authority areas, with major industrial projects like HyNet requiring substantial construction, engineering, and management workforce. However, over the next 5 years, modelling (based on the currently understood pipeline of projects, including HyNet, and other similar major infrastructure projects) indicates a need for a near doubling of the clean energy workforce from the 2024 baseline across the entire North West and North Wales regions.

This demand comes at the same time as increasing work in housing retrofit, increased house building, and major national infrastructure projects that attract large numbers of the existing mobile workforce. With an ageing and retiring construction and energy-sector workforce, this level of new work demands a coordinated response at the North West scale. This procurement should result in a clear action plan to support wider regional delivery and ensure the skills and workforce gap is successfully addressed. The plan will make detailed recommendations for:

• Common pathways for upskilling and reskilling existing workers
• New entrant programmes
• Shared micro-credentials and skills passporting
• Coordination mechanisms to ensure joined-up delivery across the region and alongside neighbouring areas (e.g. Staffordshire, North Wales, etc)

This will be supported by the production of an agreed framework and way-of-working for regional coordination of identified skills interventions, and a shared comms approach to drive uptake of any resulting new skills provision.

Given the timescales for deployment of these technologies at pace across the North West, this coordination, convening, and action planning is needed in the very near term. The consultant(s) undertaking this work will be appointed 13^th November for a period of circa 6 months.

Further specification details for each stage are provided in Section 3 – Specification. Please refer to this in your tender response.

Tender details

This ITT sets out the information which is required in order to assess the suitability of bidders in terms of their stakeholder engagement, track record, project plan, and pricing to meet the requirements of ECW for Regional Clean Energy Skills Coordination and Action Planning.

The successful bidder will be required to deliver services in accordance with all tender documents and the contract to be placed with the successful bidder. Tenderers are requested to study the specification in detail and ensure that the specified requirements can be met and thus your understanding of our requirements is reflected in your Pricing Schedule return.

The contract is expected to commence 13^th November, with the exact dates to be agreed depending on the agreement between the successful provider and ECW.

ECW wish to secure efficiencies and economies of scale by means of a procurement exercise for meeting the requirements detailed within this documentation. The principal benefits anticipated by ECW in this procurement include;

• Ability to maximise opportunities for best value and efficient services
• To allow bidders to explore efficiencies, which may be possible by suggesting innovative and cost-effective solutions
• Presentation of cost savings to ECW in order to maximise economical operational efficiency and value for money
• A resultant contract that meets the tender requirements and supports ECW with their ambition

Budget 

A budget of up to £50,000 excl. VAT is available. This is to be split as £30,000 for Outline Stage activity and £20,000 for the Development Stage.

Suppliers should quote against each activity in the pricing form provided, which must also show the daily rates for key members of staff / key delivery roles. 

Closing Date & Submission

 The closing date and time for the receipt of submissions and all requested documentation relating to this stage is 16:00 hours (4pm) on 5^th November 2025. Late submissions will not be accepted.

Submissions will only be accepted if they are returned via email to tenders@cheshireandwarrington.com. Bidders should not send their completed submissions to any other email address.

Tenderers are advised that it is compulsory to complete and return all of the following documents in the format provided as per the instructions of this ITT. All questions must be answered, where a question does not apply please state “Not applicable”.  Failure to complete the documents in full and/or provide all documentation will result in a non-compliant tender submission and will mean that your tender is not considered.