Decision details

The non-domestic water supply industry in England was deregulated on 1st April 2017.

In the months preceding de-regulation, a decision was taken by East Sussex County Council (ESCC), Surrey County Council (SCC) and Brighton and Hove City Council (BHCC) to remain with their respective current suppliers for a period of time whilst the new market established itself.

It is considered that the market has now settled enough for the Councils to establish a new contractual arrangement for the services.
This tender received 8 expressions of interest and 5 responses but the decision to award to Castle Water was ultimately based on lowest cost for delivering the overall best value for the required services.

It was decided that this tender should be awarded to Castle Water, for they provided a compliant best value response following a competitive e-auction undertaken by Crown Commercial Services (Option 1- Access Existing Framework Agreement)

Option 2: Continue with current interim suppliers with no contract or establish a contract with supplier.

The current arrangements have been put in place as an interim – taking the standard business rate for water services. It is a requirement of the councils to competitively test the requirement for the services given its value. In addition, the councils are likely to achieve cost savings through a competitive procurement process.

Option 3: Tender for a contract or framework alone or with SCC/BHCC/Other Partners.

Tendering for a contract or framework would involve significant resources and would be unlikely to achieve the level of pricing and service that could be obtained by accessing established large scale arrangements, such as the CCS and LASER frameworks.