CPV 45-1 Site preparation work

About CPV 45-1

CPV 45-1 is the Common Procurement Vocabulary group covering site preparation work. It is the first physical activity on any construction project and, on public sites, frequently a substantial contract in its own right.

The group covers demolition and dismantling, site clearance and enabling works, excavation and earthworks, land remediation and contaminated ground treatment, drainage and ground stabilisation, test drilling and boring, and asbestos and hazardous material removal.

Public sector site preparation is more complex than its commercial equivalent because of what public land tends to contain. Former industrial land, closed institutional buildings, old school and hospital sites, and land in long public ownership frequently carry contamination, asbestos, ecological constraints, and archaeological interest, all of which have to be dealt with before anything can be built.

Active CPV 45-1 tenders

Live activity is driven by estate rationalisation and by regeneration. Councils and health bodies disposing of or redeveloping surplus buildings generate demolition and remediation contracts, often as standalone procurements ahead of any development decision, because clearing a site improves its value and its prospects.

Regeneration and housing delivery generate remediation work on brownfield land, frequently supported by grant funding aimed specifically at bringing difficult sites forward. Flood alleviation and drainage schemes form a further stream procured by councils, drainage boards, and the environmental agencies.

Active sub-category	Typical procurement route	Primary buyer pattern
Demolition and dismantling	Standalone competition	Council, NHS body, university
Land remediation	Grant-supported competition	Council or regeneration body
Asbestos removal	Framework or term contract	Any estate owner
Earthworks and enabling works	Part of main works or standalone	Capital programme owner
Drainage and flood works	Framework or open procedure	Council, drainage board, agency

Top buyers procuring CPV 45-1

In our own corpus East Ayrshire Council, RSPB Scotland, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority, Newry Mourne and Down District Council, Natural England, and Renfrewshire Council are among the more frequent publishers under this group.

The presence of conservation and national park bodies alongside councils is characteristic. Habitat restoration, peatland works, watercourse modification, and access infrastructure all involve earthworks and site preparation, and are procured by organisations that are not conventional construction clients. That makes this group broader than a contractor might expect, and it means some of the work sits closer to environmental management than to building.

Typical contract values under CPV 45-1

The median notice sits around half a million pounds, which is consistent with a demolition or enabling works package on a single site. The upper decile reaches well above a hundred million, covering major remediation and earthworks on large regeneration or infrastructure schemes.

Contract value in this group carries more uncertainty than in most, because ground conditions are only partly known at tender. Contamination extent, asbestos quantity, and unforeseen obstructions routinely differ from the survey position, and how that risk is allocated in the contract matters more than the tendered figure. Contractors should read the ground conditions and unforeseen circumstances provisions closely, since a keen price on a contract carrying full ground risk is a poor bargain.

Compliance and certifications for CPV 45-1 bidders

Demolition work requires demonstrable competence, and buyers commonly require membership of a recognised demolition trade body alongside general safety accreditation. Asbestos removal requires a licence from the health and safety regulator for licensable work, and buyers verify the licence and its scope directly.

Waste carrier registration and, where materials are treated or stored, environmental permits are required, and buyers check that permits cover the specific waste codes. Contaminated land work attracts requirements for competent person involvement in remediation strategy and verification, and the verification report is frequently a contractual deliverable because it supports the planning discharge. Ecological constraints require method statements addressing protected species and, where relevant, licences obtained before work starts. Safety accreditation through CHAS, Constructionline, SafeContractor, or SMAS is standard, and Construction Design and Management Regulations duties apply as they do to any construction work.

Frequently asked questions

Why is site preparation often procured separately from the main works?

Several reasons, and they are usually deliberate. Clearing and remediating a site removes uncertainty that would otherwise be priced as risk by a main contractor, often expensively. It can be done while design and funding are still being finalised, saving programme time. On disposal sites there may be no main works contract at all, because the buyer intends to sell the cleared land. And remediation frequently attracts specific grant funding that must be spent on that activity alone. For specialist contractors this is good news: it creates a steady flow of standalone contracts rather than subcontract positions.

How is ground risk usually allocated?

It varies, and it is the single most important commercial term in this group. Some contracts place ground conditions risk entirely with the contractor, some retain it with the client, and many use a baseline approach where conditions worse than a defined baseline trigger a variation. Public buyers have moved somewhat towards sharing this risk, having learned that transferring it wholesale produces high prices and disputes. Contractors should identify the mechanism before pricing and should treat a contract carrying full unquantified ground risk with considerable caution regardless of how attractive the scope looks.

What does the environmental side of this group involve?

More than contractors from a building background expect. Conservation bodies and national park authorities procure earthworks for habitat restoration, peatland rewetting, watercourse renaturalisation, and footpath and access construction. The work is physically similar to conventional groundworks but is carried out under ecological constraints, in sensitive locations, often with restricted seasonal working windows to protect breeding birds or spawning fish. Contractors who can work within those constraints and evidence it find a market with less competition than mainstream construction.

Is asbestos removal a separate market?

Largely yes, because licensable work requires a licence that general demolition contractors do not necessarily hold, and because a great deal of asbestos removal happens in occupied buildings with no demolition involved at all. Many estate owners hold standing term contracts for asbestos surveys and removal quite separately from any construction procurement. For a licensed contractor this is a steady market driven by the duty to manage asbestos in non-domestic premises, and it is procured continuously rather than project by project.