Eastleigh Council Seeks Contractor for £60m Botley Housing Scheme

Eastleigh Borough Council has gone out to tender for a design and build contractor to deliver a £60m scheme of 192 mixed-tenure homes at Kings Copse Avenue in Botley, Hampshire. Full planning permission is already in place, and the council is pushing ahead with infrastructure and enabling work before the main contractor comes on board.

The project covers more than houses. The scheme will be delivered in a single phase and includes the homes themselves plus roads, utilities, landscaping and public open space. That single-phase structure means the winning firm takes on the whole site from the start, not a series of parcelled plots.

How will the council pick its contractor?

Eastleigh will run an initial qualification round to cut the field down to four bidders before moving to full tenders. Final submissions will be scored 70% on quality and 30% on cost, with the council retaining the option of a best and final offer round.

That 70/30 weighting is worth noting. It tilts the contest toward contractors who can demonstrate design quality, delivery capability and social value, rather than those who simply sharpen their pencil on price. A best and final offer round also gives the council a lever to squeeze improved terms from the last bidders standing.

What is the timeline?

The dates are already fixed in the tender documents:

• Clarification questions due by 6 November
• Qualification submissions close at noon on 11 November
• Winning contractor expected to be named in April 2027
• Work due to start in the third quarter of 2027
• First homes completing in early 2028
• Final completion targeted for late 2030

In other words, residents should be moving into the first Kings Copse Avenue homes within roughly two years of the contract award, while the full build-out stretches across a further two and a half years.

What does this change for contractors?

For mid-sized and major housebuilders, this is a live opportunity worth £60m with planning risk already removed — the single biggest obstacle in residential development. The council's early investment in infrastructure and enabling work also means the main contractor arrives on a site that's already been de-risked.

The catch is the calendar. Qualification submissions close at noon on 11 November, with clarification questions due by 6 November, so interested firms have a tight window to put their credentials forward for a shot at the four-bidder shortlist.

The tender is published through the council's procurement portal, where full documentation is available. With first completions pencilled in for early 2028, whoever wins in April 2027 will be under pressure to mobilise quickly — and Botley will be a test of whether a council-led, single-phase model can deliver mixed-tenure housing at pace.