Contract Start Season: The Month an FM Book Proves Itself

The MonthWhy so much of the FM year turns over in September

The academic year sets it. Schools, colleges and universities award and start contracts around the summer break, and because that calendar also governs a great deal of public sector and local authority activity, a large share of the sector's annual churn lands in the same four weeks. Corporate estates follow their own financial years, but September remains the densest month for starts in most FM books.

What that means practically is that the decisions were taken months ago. A contract starting this month was tendered in spring and awarded in early summer, which is why the useful question in September is not who won, but what the wins and the losses tell you about how your business is being judged.

It also means the next round is closer than it feels. If you are thinking about a sale in two years, the contracts that will be in the book at completion are being decided in the tender rounds now, and the renewal history a buyer will read is being written this month.

The MeasureMeasuring retention in a way a buyer will accept

Measure it by value, not by count. Retaining nine contracts out of ten sounds strong until the one that went was a quarter of the revenue, and a buyer will recalculate your figure on a value basis within an hour of receiving it. Publishing the value-weighted number yourself is better than having it corrected for you.

Distinguish between a renewal and a retender win. A contract extended under an option in the existing agreement tells a buyer the client did not want the disruption. A contract won again in open competition against national providers tells them something considerably stronger, and it is worth recording which was which at the time, because nobody remembers three years later.

Then keep the losses. Owners instinctively present the wins, and a loss record is more persuasive than its absence, because it shows the number is real. A book that has lost two contracts in three years, for reasons you can state plainly, is more credible than one presented as never having lost anything.

The ScoringWhat now decides a public sector renewal

The rules governing public procurement changed this year. The Procurement Act 2023 came into force on 24 February 2025 and moved the award test from the Most Economically Advantageous Tender to the Most Advantageous Tender, which puts quality, environmental impact, innovation and social value formally alongside price in the evaluation rather than behind it.

Social value already carried weight before that. Central government procurement has applied a minimum ten per cent evaluation weighting for social value since January 2021, and NHS procurements have carried a comparable net zero and social value weighting since 2022. FM is well placed to score on it, because the work is local, labour-intensive and delivered over years rather than weeks.

For an owner thinking about value, the implication is narrow and practical. The ability to win on quality and social value rather than on price is a capability a buyer is paying for, and it is evidenced by scored tender feedback, not by assertion. Keep the scoring sheets. They are the clearest external evidence a facilities management business has that its contract book will still be there in three years.

Facilities management is well placed to score on social value, because the work is local, labour-intensive and delivered over years rather than weeks.