Tree Equity & Urban Resilience Tender Lead

Trees for Cities is delighted to support the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan's new London Tree Equity and Urban Resilience (TE&UR) project, a grant-funded partnership scheme initiated by the Greater London Authority (GLA) to improve access to trees, and the benefits they provide, within London neighbourhoods facing high heat risk and wider social vulnerability. We'll be engaging Londoners in target boroughs to help plant and care for more trees where they're needed most.

As part of our role in this project, we are inviting bids from suitably qualified consultants to support delivery of the Tree Equity and Urban Resilience (TE&UR) initiative. Trees for Cities is acting as the contracting authority for this commission and will oversee delivery of the consultant’s work as part of the wider TE&UR partnership.

Invitation to Tender issued: 30/06/2026

Deadline for clarification questions: 15/07/2026

Deadline for submission of quotes: 04/08/2026

Appointment decision: 18/08/2026

Contract start: Date to be confirmed (~25/08/2026)

This Invitation to Tender (ITT) is for a time-limited commission to deliver treescape enhancement opportunity mapping, ground-truthing and investment planning for 15 ward-scale areas distributed across a cohort of six London boroughs (e.g. 1 to 3 ward(s) per borough).

Further background on the TE&UR initiative and the associated partnership is provided in section 1.1.2 and 1.2.3 of the Specification Schedule. Further details on the ambitions, anticipated outcomes and outputs expected from this commission are detailed in section 1.2.

This project requires a range of skills and we welcome consortia, with a single lead consultant required. Further details are provided on consultant capabilities and available data input in section 1.3.

Appointment is anticipated in August 2026 with delivery commencement expected by the end of the month, and payment to be made following achievement of key project milestones, as set out in the timetables provided in section 1.4.

FAQs

• Please submit clarification questions via this online form. Responses will be uploaded regularly to this webpage.
• Deadline for submission: 15/07/2026
• Can you confirm the level of technical support provided by Royal Botanical Gardens and Shade the UK, specifically how this input relates to the tasks set out in the brief?
• Can you confirm there is no community engagement requirements as part of the ground-truthing 2 task?
• Can you confirm whether consultants should allow for any attendance at community engagement activities led by TfC?
• It is assumed that a quantity surveyor is not required as part of the consultant team and that estimated/indicative costings are sufficient. Please confirm.
• Question 3 requires the inclusion of a team organogram. As it’s a diagram, can the organogram be provided in addition to the three-page limit (as per the approach to the CVs)?
• Section 1.2.5 states that the project programme stretches from mid-August 2026 to December 2027. However, the process diagram on page 12 of the brief appears to show the investment planning element delivered by the consultant continuing into 2028 and running concurrently with the 27-28 planting season. Please confirm if we should therefore assume a March 2028 end date.
• It is assumed that the conceptual design element of the treescape investment plans will not require the purchase of topographical mapping in relation to the priority pilot schemes. Please confirm.
• Would the client accept some minor wording changes to the Ts and Cs to ensure alignment with our insurance?
• Is there guidance on the level of Professional and Public Liability Insurance required?
• Please confirm the format of the outputs of the community engagement (led by TfC), mentioned on page 13.
• Please confirm whether TfC will provide access to an existing GIS platform or whether bidders should assume responsibility for providing all software, licensing, hosting, and user access required for project delivery and stakeholder collaboration.
• What are the expectations regarding hosting and ownership of GIS applications and data after project completion? Please clarify the expected long-term hosting and ownership model for GIS datasets, web applications, survey tools, and engagement platforms created through this commission. Should these be delivered into a TfC-managed environment or as standalone deliverables?
• For the interactive GIS-based engagement tools referenced in the specification, please clarify the anticipated scale of use, including expected numbers of borough users, partner users, and members of the public, together with any requirements for authenticated versus anonymous participation.
• The specification refers to community engagement tools and online submission of comments. Are there any information governance, GDPR, accessibility, cyber security, or hosting requirements that bidders should assume when proposing digital engagement solutions?
• Definition of 'ward': Please confirm how 'ward' is defined for this commission. Specifically, will the 15 wards be based on electoral wards, or on another administrative or statistical geography like ONS wards?
• Intended end users of the reusable digital outputs: Who is expected to be the primary user of the reusable GIS workflows, scripts and templates? Understanding this will help us confirm which GIS software the outputs need to be compatible with, so that boroughs and partners can readily use them beyond the commission.
• Distinction between fixed and ward-based costs: Please could you clarify how costs should be categorised in the commercial submission. For example, we understand that opportunity mapping could be treated as a fixed cost. Could you confirm what should be classed as ward-based costs, and where the distinction lies between the two?
• Supporting project examples: In addition to the CVs, may we also include short project sheets in our appendix to illustrate our relevant experience?
• Budget: could you confirm that the budget for the project described in the brief is £254k. Does this include the cost of implementing the 10-12 pilot schemes referred to in the brief (i.e. the cost of tree planting)?
• Section 1.2.2 A refers to the use of ‘dynamic and interactive GIS/database driven tools enabling online engagement.’ Will you be providing/do you have a preferred GIS/database driven tool or will you consider proposals from the consultant team?
• Technical assessment criteria (page 21): the page limit notes advise that tenderers can use their own template but that the answer should not exceed … pages. We would like to use our own template and include illustrations (e.g. mapping and reporting examples). Should we include these illustrations in the two page limit or can we put into a separate appendix for each question response?
• To what RIBA Stage level do you require costings to be developed? As these relate to pilot projects to be implemented, we’d envisage RIBA Stage 4. Please confirm.

How to apply

Please submit quotes via this online form.

Deadline for submission: 04/08/2026