The Environment Agency has awarded a major contract for a Beach Management Framework with an estimated value of approx £1.472 billion including VAT.

The Agency requires a Beach Management Framework to deliver its routine and ad-hoc beach maintenance works across all coastal frontages in England that it is responsible for.

The maintenance typically consists of moving/transporting large volumes of shingle from areas of accretion to areas of erosion and evenly re-distributing shingle along the sea to restore/maintain the required standard of protection.

Requirements covered under the framework will include:

• importing marine dredged or land-based shingle onto coastal frontages to replenish lost material and to conduct maintenance/repairs to coastal defences and structures
• import and place rock on coastal frontages, as well as to provide coastal incident response, recovery and readiness support in the event of extreme weather events.

The maintenance is essential to minimise the risk of coastal flooding to residential properties and commercial businesses.

VAN OORD UK Ltd and VBA Joint Venture Ltd have both been awarded contracts under the framework – they were only two companies who tendered for the contract.

Contract award decision date was 9 April 2026 and the earliest date the contract will be signed is 21 April 2026.

Current estimated start and end contract dates are 22 April 2026 to 21 April 2032 with a further possible extension option up to 21 April 2034.

The decision as to whether to utilise the framework 2 year extension will occur at the end of Year 4, allowing time to retender should the decision be made not to extend the framework.