Local authority launches tender for green infrastructure strategy
Consultant sought to shape evidence-based green infrastructure planning, linking sustainable growth with environmental management for a local area.
Consultant sought to shape evidence-based green infrastructure planning, linking sustainable growth with environmental management for a local area.
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Mid Devon District Council is going to market for a consultant to write its Plan Mid Devon Green Infrastructure Strategy, a core evidence piece for how the district manages growth and its environment. The commission underlines growing demand for specialist advice on tying development decisions to green infrastructure and wider environmental policy.
Published on 1st September 2026, the contract notice is short but clear about the task. The council wants a consultant to develop a Green Infrastructure Strategy that will provide 'essential evidence and recommendations for sustainable growth and environmental management in line with local and national policies'.
That framing gives the work strategic weight. The natural environment is being treated as infrastructure that must be planned alongside more traditional forms of growth. By linking the strategy directly to 'Plan Mid Devon', the authority signals that green infrastructure will be embedded in its wider planning agenda rather than bolted on at the end.
The notice does not set out detailed themes, indicators or datasets. There is no published breakdown of environmental topics, geographic focus or delivery tools. The document instead stays at a high level, leaving the emphasis firmly on evidence and policy alignment.
For consultants, the language still flags expectations. The council wants analysis robust enough to stand as 'essential evidence' and advice concrete enough to count as 'recommendations'. Any winning team will have to show that its work can inform real choices about where growth happens and how environmental management is organised.
The requirement to reflect both local and national policies also matters. It implies a brief that spans local development and corporate plans as well as higher-level environmental and planning objectives. The successful supplier will need to translate that policy mix into a coherent strategy for Mid Devon’s area.
Mid Devon’s move comes in a year when many authorities are commissioning similar studies. In March 2026, Rother District Council went to market for a Green and Blue Infrastructure Framework Study to support its new Local Plan. That work is tasked with establishing planning standards for open space and defining a strategic green and blue infrastructure network.
In August 2026, Ashford Borough Council issued a contract notice for an Open Space Strategy and Green Infrastructure Plan. Ashford is seeking qualified consultants to develop a combined view of open space and green infrastructure to guide future planning.
Elsewhere in Europe, cities are putting similar questions out to the market. In August 2026, the Ville de Nîmes advertised an urban greening and development study to create a coordinated guide plan for greening. The study must integrate climate change considerations, involve citizen participation and enhance public spaces and neighbourhood life.
Just days later in August 2026, Toulouse Métropole sought support to develop its biodiversity strategy. That contract combines a strategic biodiversity diagnosis with clarification of political ambitions, an operational action plan for 2028–2032 and the structuring of sustainable partnerships.
These notices differ in geography and emphasis, but they share a theme. Green infrastructure, biodiversity and related environmental issues are being drawn into the mainstream of spatial planning. Evidence and strategy that once sat on the margins are now expected to underpin core development decisions.
Other recent tenders from 2026 help illustrate what this kind of commission can involve in practice, even though Mid Devon’s own notice stays at headline level.
Taken together, these commissions highlight three recurring themes: the use of detailed spatial data, the push to measure ecological performance, and the integration of environmental thinking into core infrastructure and economic planning. Consultants are being asked not just to describe green assets, but to quantify their value, link them to wider strategies and build the institutional capacity to act.
Mid Devon’s Green Infrastructure Strategy is not presented with this level of procedural detail, but its emphasis on 'essential evidence and recommendations' places it in the same family of work. Any bidder will need to show how they can assemble and analyse environmental information in a way that planners and decision-makers can rely on.
The parallel tenders also suggest the mix of skills likely to be in demand: policy literacy, geospatial competence, understanding of environmental management and the ability to turn technical findings into clear strategic choices. For firms already advising on open space, biodiversity or spatial data infrastructure, Mid Devon’s brief will read as part of a wider market shift rather than a one-off request.
For now, Mid Devon District Council has set out only the headline aim of its Green Infrastructure Strategy. The notice explains that the strategy must provide essential evidence and recommendations for sustainable growth and environmental management in line with policy, but leaves scope and outputs to be defined through the procurement.
The next questions will be how closely the finished strategy is tied into Plan Mid Devon, and how far it shapes decisions on growth, investment and environmental management. Rother’s and Ashford’s commissions suggest that, in many places, green infrastructure evidence is moving quickly from background study to a tool for setting standards and drawing strategic networks.
For the environmental and planning consultancy market, the Mid Devon tender is another signal that green infrastructure expertise is becoming a regular part of public-sector commissioning. From biodiversity strategies and urban greening plans to climate adaptation projects and spatial data systems, public bodies are seeking partners who can connect environmental ambitions with clear, actionable advice. How the Plan Mid Devon strategy is framed and applied will offer a further indication of how embedded that shift has become.
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