The NHS’s drive to decarbonise its estate has moved into a new phase, with the North of England NHS Commercial Procurement Collaborative (NOE CPC) launching a £1bn national framework covering decarbonisation and energy infrastructure works. The new framework, now open for tenders, is intended to support NHS trusts and other public bodies to deliver their Green Plans at pace and at scale, through a single, end‑to‑end procurement route.
While the scale of the framework is significant, its structure and scope provide a clearer indication of how the NHS now expects estates decarbonisation to be delivered – and how suppliers will need to position themselves to respond.
From advisory support to end-to-end delivery
This framework comprising of 20 Lots has been designed to support the full project lifecycle, spanning early-stage strategy and feasibility through to funding approval, scheme delivery and contract management. The largest Lot Division is Lot 6, worth up to £200m, which provides a “total service provision” model for organisations capable of acting as a principal partner for the full lifecycle of decarbonisation in public sector estates.
Alongside this are four £50m consultancy and support Lots covering strategic planning, feasibility and programme management, funding application support, and contract management, reporting and audit services. The remaining value is distributed across 15 regional works Lots, each valued at around £40m, segmented by geography and project size to reflect the varied maturity of NHS estates.
The deadline for bids is 1 May 2026.
A clear signal on NHS priorities
The framework’s launch reflects the NHS’s growing emphasis on delivery certainty in estates decarbonisation. Many trusts have now completed high‑level Green Plans, but face challenges in progressing projects at pace—chiefly around capacity, technical capability and access to funding.
Timing
The framework is expected to run initially from 1 October 2026 to 30 September 2029, aligning with the next phase of NHS estates investment planning. The size of the framework underlines the scale of the NHS’s decarbonisation ambition and the expectation that estates programmes will form a sustained pipeline rather than one‑off capital projects.
Our content explained
Every piece of content we create is correct on the date it’s published but please don’t rely on it as legal advice. If you’d like to speak to us about your own legal requirements, please contact one of our expert lawyers.