Bidwright
Discuss
01M&E · Sussex · No Win, No Fee

M&E bid writer in Sussex — no win, no fee.

You price the services. We craft the proposal. Founder-led bid writing for M&E subcontractors tendering £50k–£5m packages.

Book a 15-minute callRequest the sample pack
£1,500 minimum success fee · 2% above £75k · Founder-led · Also covering Surrey, Kent, Hampshire
02The honest problem

M&E bids are won or lost on design responsibility framing.

M&E tenders sit at the messy intersection of design and install. The main contractor wants to push design responsibility down. The consultant wants to keep it. The M&E sub gets stuck deciding what to take on — and how to frame what they've priced.

BSRIA BG 6 / 49 design responsibility split, services coordination, commissioning approach, Soft Landings alignment, BSRIA BG 54 hand-over — these aren't optional bid components any more. They're the meat of the evaluation.

Most M&E firms could write all of this in their sleep on a job. Few of them write it inside the bid pack the way the lead consultant wants to read it.

03What’s hard about it

The three problems that cost you the appointment.

  1. 01

    Design responsibility split framed clearly

    The bid pack should make it obvious what design responsibility the M&E sub is taking versus the consultant's lead. Most submissions hide this. The QS reads that as risk, and prices it in against you.

  2. 02

    Coordination & clash narrative

    Services coordination across mechanical, electrical, public health and BMS is the routine cause of programme slippage. The bid pack should explain how clash detection happens, who owns the model, and what the resolution protocol is.

  3. 03

    Commissioning & witness regime

    Commissioning is increasingly the contractual close-out activity for M&E. A bid pack that doesn't lay out the commissioning sequence, witness regime, and Soft Landings handover signals 'we haven't planned this' to the consultant.

04Sussex market context

Why bid evaluation in Sussex works the way it does.

Sussex sits between the South-East commercial corridor and the South-Coast economic strip. Bid activity is heavier in the Brighton, Crawley, Gatwick Diamond, Worthing and Eastbourne corridors. The mix is commercial fit-out, hospitality refurb, schools and universities, healthcare estates, and a steady stream of council-framework work.

Most Sussex subcontractors win locally on relationships and lose nationally on submissions. The big main contractors running South-East frameworks (Wates, ISG, Willmott Dixon, BAM, Vinci) want the regional sub's site capability — but evaluate the bid pack against the same standard they apply to their tier-1 supply chain. That's where well-priced Sussex firms get out-bid by national rivals with bigger bid teams.

05How it works

From tender on the desk to submission-ready pack.

  1. 01

    You send us the tender

    Brief, scope, return-by date, your draft price.

  2. 02

    We write the proposal pack

    Method statement, programme narrative, M&E-specific compliance evidence, and the supporting documents your evaluator wants to read — in the main contractor's QS language, not yours.

  3. 03

    You review and submit

    Your name on it. Your win.

  4. 04

    You pay only if you win

    £1,500 minimum, 2% of contract value above £75k. Don't win, don't pay.

Founding-team UK firm. Sussex-covering. Karl runs it.

06Inside the pack

What you get in a M&E proposal pack.

  • 01
    Method statement
    First-fix and second-fix sequencing, plant-room build-out, riser strategy, services routes.
  • 02
    BSRIA BG 6 / 49 design framing
    Design responsibility split written explicitly — what the M&E sub owns, what the consultant retains.
  • 03
    Coordination narrative
    Clash detection approach, BIM federation strategy, resolution protocol with the architectural and structural disciplines.
  • 04
    Commissioning & witness regime
    Sequence, witness points, third-party commissioning where applicable, defect-correction protocol.
  • 05
    Soft Landings / BSRIA BG 54 framing
    If the tender scores Soft Landings, the pack explains the handover protocol, aftercare and seasonal commissioning.
  • 06
    Compliance evidence
    Electrical regs, mechanical regs, F-Gas certification, NICEIC / BESA / ECA — mapped to the work scope.
  • 07
    Programme narrative
    First fix → second fix → commissioning sequence tied to the main programme.
  • 08
    Experience matrix
    Past projects mapped to the tender's evaluation criteria.
07Why no win, no fee

A first-tender risk-sharing offer.

We only get paid if the bid wins. £1,500 minimum success fee (binds on contracts up to £75k), 2% on contract value above £75k. Eligible on opportunities over £50k. Founding offer — capped at the first ten Sussex contractors who take it up.

08Sample pack

See what one actually looks like.

We’ve put together a sample bid pack — fictional contract, watermarked, real format. Request it via the link below. No commitment to engage; we just want you to see what one looks like.

Request the sample pack →
09Frequently asked

M&E bid writing — practical answers.

01How much does a no-win-no-fee bid writer cost for a Sussex M&E tender?
£0 if your bid doesn't win. £1,500 minimum if it does, or 2% of contract value on tenders above £75k. There's no upfront fee, no retainer, no hourly rate. The fee is invoiced once you confirm the contract award. Eligible on opportunities over £50k.
02What's included in an M&E proposal pack?
Method statement, BSRIA BG 6 / 49 design responsibility framing, services coordination and clash detection narrative, commissioning and witness regime, Soft Landings / BSRIA BG 54 alignment where the tender scores it, electrical and mechanical compliance evidence, programme narrative tied to first / second fix sequencing, and experience matrix mapped to evaluation criteria.
03How do you handle the design responsibility split?
Explicitly. The bid pack states what design responsibility the M&E sub is taking — typically detailed design, coordination model, commissioning regime — versus what the consultant retains (concept, schematics, performance specs). The QS reads ambiguity as risk and prices it in. We remove the ambiguity.
04How long does an M&E bid pack take to write?
M&E packs are documentation-heavy. Standard sub-packages take 4–7 working days. Frameworks for healthcare, data centres, or commercial Cat-A fit-outs take 8–15 days because the coordination and commissioning narrative is substantial. We won't compress that on a 72-hour return.
05Do you handle BMS, controls, and IoT scope properly?
Yes — increasingly tenders carve BMS, controls and IoT out as a separate scope, with the M&E sub coordinating but not always installing. We frame the integration responsibility, controls handover and aftercare obligations in line with whatever scope split you've priced.
06Do you understand the Sussex / South-East tender market?
Yes. Sussex is part of our warm geography. We work with the regional supply chains around Gatwick, Brighton, Crawley, Worthing, Eastbourne and Chichester — and the frameworks run out of those corridors (universities, healthcare, schools, council estates). We also cover Surrey and Kent within the same warm region, and we work UK-wide on cold opportunities up to £5m contract value.
10Next steps

Worth a 15-minute call?

If you’ve got a live M&Etender on the desk now, let’s look at it together. Karl will run through what the proposal pack would cover, and we’ll agree the engagement terms before any work starts.

Book a 15-minute callRequest the sample pack
Karl
Bidwright · bidwright.co.uk
Prefer email? karl.gleave@bidwright.co.uk