Flat out in March. Nothing booked for May.
One-off private jobs keep the van busy, until they don't. You can't take on a lad, buy kit or plan a year when you never know what's next.
Why we exist
We believe the best firm should win the job. Not the best at paperwork.
Every year, billions of pounds of public work goes to whoever is best at forms, not whoever is best at the job. We think that's backwards. So we find the contracts that fit your firm and write the bids that win them.
No card. No contract. Reply "stop" any time.
Sound familiar?
Running a trades firm shouldn't feel like this.
Job done in June. Paid in September.
Chasing invoices from main contractors and homeowners eats your evenings and your cash flow. Retentions you never quite get back.
Subbing for the big boys, at their rates.
You do the work. They hold the council contract, take the margin and set the terms. You'd bid direct, if you had the time.
Sixty pages to price a car park.
Portals, method statements, "social value", scoring matrices. It's a week of evenings for a contract you might not win, so the tender goes in the bin.
There's a better customer
Public work is steady work.
Councils, housing associations, schools and the NHS spend billions a year on repairs, maintenance and building work, and they're under pressure to spend more of it with small local firms.
£29.1bnspent by local government with small and medium firms in 2025
30 dayspayment terms written into public contracts by law
3–5 yrstypical length of a council maintenance contract
By lawbuyers must now consider the barriers small firms face
Sources: British Chambers of Commerce & Tussell SME Procurement Tracker 2026; Procurement Act 2023. Contract lengths vary; check each tender.
How we do it
You do the work. We do the paperwork.
1
We find it
Every week we read every public construction notice in the UK and pick out the ones that fit your trades, your patch and your size.
2
We tell you straight
Each one comes with a plain-English call: bid, check, or don't bother. Plus what they'll score and what you'd be missing. No jargon.
3
We write it. You sign it.
Send us the pack and your evidence. We write every answer to their scoring. You read it, fix anything that isn't right, and press submit.
Your partAbout an hour a bidSend documents. Read the draft. Press submit.
Our partEverything elseFinding, reading, planning, writing, checking.
What the Radar looks like
Real tenders. Straight answers.
This is from this week's issue. Some councils now reserve smaller contracts for small firms only, so the big contractors can't even bid.
What you get
Fixed prices. No day rates.
A freelance bid writer typically charges £300–£600 a day, and a full tender can take three to eight days. We charge one price per bid.
Tender Radar
£49 / month
Know what's out there.
- Weekly matched tenders for your trades and area
- Bid / check / skip call on each
- Deadline reminders
- First 4 weeks free
No card needed to start.
Bid Pack
£595 quotation
£1,250 full tender
- Every requirement mapped from the pack
- Every answer written to their scoring
- Compliance check before you submit
- 3 working days (quote) or 7 (tender)
Free tender summary first. Pay only when you say go.
Bid Library
£295 one-off
Write it once. Use it every time.
- Company profile, H&S, quality, environment and social value answers
- Built from your own documents
- Makes every future bid faster
One invoice. Yours to keep and reuse.
All prices exclude VAT at 20%. VAT-registered firms can reclaim it.
Straight dealing
Your name is on it. We treat it that way.
We will
- Only write what's true about your firm, from your own documents
- Tell you when a tender isn't worth your time
- Keep your documents private and use them only for your bids
- Leave you in control. You press submit, not us.
We won't
- Invent jobs, certificates or experience you don't have
- Promise you'll win. Nobody honest can.
- Take a cut of your contract
- Tie you into a contract with us
Questions
Before you ask
We've never done council work. Is that a problem?
No. Start with smaller quotations and lots, where track record matters less. The Radar tells you which ones are within reach and what you'd need for the bigger ones.
What do I need to have in place?
Usually employer's and public liability insurance, a health and safety policy, and two or three past jobs we can describe. Accreditations like CHAS or SafeContractor help. If you're missing something, we'll tell you what and why.
How quickly can you turn a bid round?
Quotations in 3 working days, full tenders in 7, counted from when we have your documents. Send the pack as early as you can.
Do you take a cut if we win?
No. You pay the fixed price and keep every penny of the contract.
Where do you cover?
The whole UK. We read every public construction tender on Find a Tender (all of the UK) and Contracts Finder (England), then match them to the area you work in, whether that's 10 miles from your yard or the whole country. Smaller Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish contracts are on their own portals, and we're adding those next.
Start free
Take the first step up.
Email Luke. Your first Tender Radar arrives within 5 working days.
luke@contractladder.co.uk
Just tell us:
Your company name · your trades · the areas you'll travel to · the biggest job you've done in the last 3 years