Deadline for Design for Manufactiure bids extended

English Partnerships has today (Friday) told bidders that they will have an extra two weeks to submit proposals for the Design for Manufacture Competition.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) earlier this month invited 33 organisations to participate in the next stage of the competition (CJ 8 June).

But after admitting that this list was much longer than expected – it originally predicted between 15 and 25 firms would move to the next stage - bidders will now have until Friday 15 July to submit proposals for stage two of the competition.

The government department had received over 50 expressions of interest in the first stage, involving over 100 companies.

An English Partnerships spokeswoman said that the regeneration agency was responding to pleas from firms and consortia involved in the competition, and the extra time will allow them to prepare the “high quality proposals we are expecting”.