Winning more domestic rounds and council grounds contracts, and pricing the staff who come with a re-tender

Written for gardeners and garden maintenance rounds, landscapers, grounds maintenance contractors, tree surgeons and arborists, lawn treatment, fencing and paving firms, including winter hedge, tree and gritting work, in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The short version

1. Grow your rounds street by street.Market around the rounds you already run and ask every happy client for a review. Never offer a discount for a good one.
2. Register on Find a Tender.Watch for public tender notices there. Councils score method, social value and carbon as well as price, so the written answers matter.
3. Price transferring staff on their actual terms.Before you price, ask for the employee liability information and an indemnity. Never assume you can change their terms because of the transfer.

Domestic rounds and grounds contracts are won in different ways: rounds through happy clients and their reviews, grounds work through the tenders and frameworks that managing agents, housing associations, schools, councils and developers run, where the paperwork counts as much as the price.

Domestic rounds and reviews

Domestic work grows street by street: a Google Business Profile with photos and service areas, and marketing around the rounds you already run, because route density matters more than reach. Since 6 April 2025 the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 has banned fake reviews, buying or incentivising reviews that are not flagged as such, and hiding bad ones, and the Competition and Markets Authority can fine directly. Ask every happy client for a review, and never offer a discount for a good one. As of Oct 2026.

For example, after a £680 scarification with a written 3-week recovery warning, that warning is your evidence. The client's address is personal data, and photos of their house need their written consent before you post them.

Where the tender notices are

Councils score social value, carbon and method as well as price, so the written answers matter as much as the pricing schedule. Read each tender's own rules before you start writing.

What a tender return needs

• A method statement.
• A staffing plan, with your assumptions about any staff transferring to you.
• Insurance certificates, with public liability at least the tender's per-occurrence minimum.
• Risk assessments.
• Spray certificates for everyone who will spray.
• Carbon and social value answers.
• A pricing schedule by item.

Accreditation shortens prequalification: BALI membership and accreditation, the Arboricultural Association Approved Contractor scheme for tree work, and safety schemes such as CHAS or SafeContractor. Insurers and councils both ask for them. Council and highways contracts also ask for street works tickets: street works need an accredited supervisor and operative on site, and high-speed roads need Chapter 8 traffic management.

Read the specification for chemicals and frequency. Many councils and housing associations now specify no glyphosate or reduced spraying, so price the extra hand weeding. Price the given frequency or output specification with your assumptions written down.

The staff who come with a re-tender

A grounds maintenance re-tender can be a service provision change under TUPE where the conditions are met, including an organised grouping of staff principally dedicated to that client's work. Do not assume a transfer, or no transfer, from the contract's label.

You cannot assume you can change their terms because of the transfer, so your price has to carry the terms they already have.

Asked in Greymill

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