How to Become a Supplier to HS2 After the Program Reset

What is the short route into HS2 work?

The short route into HS2 work starts with registering on CompeteFor, which is free, and then deciding which layer of the supply chain you sell into. HS2 tells businesses that CompeteFor is where it posts supply chain opportunities when they come up (HS2 and your business).

HS2 Ltd lets some contracts directly. Most small-business work, though, is indirect: HS2's own 2025 supplier guide says the majority of SME opportunities are indirect to HS2 Ltd. It goes through the tier 1 joint ventures and contractors that build the civils and fit the railway systems, and then down to their tier 2 and tier 3 subcontractors.

The route in order:

1. Get visible on the official portals.
2. Match the jobs you have already delivered to packages that are listed or coming.
3. Reach the people who own those packages at the JV or contractor, with comparable proof in the first message, before the package goes out to tender.

The demand is real and mostly domestic. HS2 says over 3,700 UK businesses already work on the railway. It also says more than 90% of its contracts have gone to UK businesses and over 70% to small and medium-sized enterprises (HS2 suppliers page).

Before anything else, I ask a supplier to write down the rail, civils and tunneling contractors it already sells to, and then find lookalike firms on the HS2 contractor lists.

HS2 is a construction and civils program, so its packages are bought by contractors who respond to specific, well-aimed outreach. I have no HS2 work to show.

What did the HS2 reset change for suppliers?

The headline is that Phase 1 continues. The Department for Transport has confirmed it will finish the current scope from Euston to the West Midlands. Its May 2026 accounting officer assessment gives the ranges suppliers now plan around (DfT accounting officer assessment summary).

The program is still busy. The government's May 2026 report to Parliament describes the program as being at its peak, with 31,000 people on it and thousands of UK companies in the supply chain (HS2 6-monthly report, May 2026).

The same report says HS2 Ltd is going through contracts with its main supply chain partners. It is settling historic payments only where they are justified and looking for ways to reward better performance.

The March 2026 report shows how plans move (HS2 6-monthly report, March 2026). It records that a procurement for platform-edge doors was abandoned through a contract notice in July 2025.

For a supplier, that adds up to two practical changes:

1. Timing stretches. Packages get reviewed and resequenced, so a tender date in an old pipeline file is a guess until a notice appears.
2. Scrutiny moves down the chain. When tier 1 contracts are under review, expect the same pressure on price and evidence in the subcontracts they let.

A week without a reply means little after a reset. Some packages were let years ago and some have not been written yet, so the person you write to may not have budget or scope to discuss for months.

Who actually buys HS2 work inside the supply chain?

HS2 Ltd owns the program and runs its own direct procurements. For most product and trade suppliers, the person who decides sits below it, at a tier 1 contractor or one of its tier 2s.

HS2 publishes that layer in more detail than most buyers ever do. Its indirect contract opportunities page lists key awarded tier 2 subcontracts and asks interested suppliers to use the contact details given. It also lists live and upcoming subcontract procurements from tier 1 contractors, so the market sees them early.

Two files can be downloaded: current indirect contracts and the JV Procurement Pipeline (HS2 indirect contract opportunities).

The table has fields for the tier 2 contractor, the tier 2 package, the package value and a contact email for procurement inquiries. When last visited it listed more than 2,000 indirect contracts.

That gives you the company and the procurement inbox, but rarely the person who decides whether your product fits the package. Finding that person is a targeting job.

My rule: the title that signs the order is rarely the one the org chart suggests. Look back at your last three jobs and find who actually decided, then search for that exact title in the niche, never a vague "manager". On HS2 work, these are the titles to look for:

Check the map against your own history first. If a commercial manager signed your last three rail orders, that title goes to the top for you.

Then count the market. The headline number looks huge. New Civil Engineer reported in 2020, before the reset, that HS2 Ltd said the £12bn main civils contracts on Phase 1 create around 400,000 supply chain contract opportunities. Most of those are not yours.

Take the tier 1s working on your section, multiply by the packages that match your work, then by the matching titles per package. For a narrow trade the total is usually small enough to research person by person.

Which HS2 contractors and packages matter most?

Work flows down from HS2 Ltd to two kinds of tier 1: the main works civils joint ventures and the rail systems contractors. HS2's supplier guide lists its key contractors and the contact details for its supply chain teams (HS2 suppliers page). Start there for names rather than an old news article. For questions the files do not answer, the 2025 supplier guide gives the supply chain team's address: scc@hs2.org.uk.

The two kinds of tier 1 buy different things:

• Civils packages cover the heavy structural and ground work. Tier 2 and tier 3 suppliers come in for materials, temporary works, plant, specialist trades and site safety products.
• Systems packages cover the railway itself. The March 2026 report says the rail systems contracts for track, signaling, communications and power started in February 2025. Suppliers come in for components, installation support, testing and specialist engineering.

Direct buying is still being shaped. In an August 2026 Find a Tender notice, HS2 Ltd asked the market for early input on future professional services partnering (Find a Tender early market engagement notice).

Stations and depots add more tier 1s. The May 2026 report names the winners of the Washwood Heath rolling stock depot contract in Birmingham: Taylor Woodrow Infrastructure and Aureos Rail, working as a joint venture.

Use this decision rule to pick your entry point:

A manufacturer of site safety equipment almost always belongs in the bottom row. A consultancy with a rail engineering team may fit the top row.

Should you register on CompeteFor for HS2 opportunities?

Yes, and it costs nothing. HS2 says CompeteFor registration is free. On the platform you can see which subcontractors are scheduled to work in your area, so you can match your services to what they need. HS2 also runs regular business engagement events to meet contractors (HS2 and your business).

The indirect opportunities page sends suppliers to CompeteFor to apply for live opportunities, and the suppliers page offers a supply chain bulletin by email. The civils JVs use the portal too: SCS JV, one of the main works joint ventures, asks suppliers to register for its subcontract opportunities through a form on CompeteFor (SCS JV supply chain page).

Add Find a Tender to the routine. A search for HS2 returns several notice types: preliminary market engagement, tender, contract award and contract details. You can filter by CPV code (the standard code for what is being bought) and region and save the search once you sign in (Find a Tender search for HS2).

CompeteFor earns its keep when a live indirect package matches your trade, and when you want to see which subcontractors are heading to your region before they start buying.

Registration puts you in the system, but nobody shortlists you because of it. By the time a package is live, the package manager may already have suppliers in mind. Use the portal to find the work. Then use outreach, so the buyer knows your name before the package goes live.

How do you reach HS2 buyers while the program is being relet?

Start from the list of contractors you already supply. The tier 1s and tier 2s that look like those customers are your target accounts. They already understand your product category, and your existing customers are the proof they will ask about first.

Then comes the proof. When I write outreach for a supplier, I move its earlier customers, outcomes and case studies out of the brochure and into the body of the email. For HS2 buyers, proof means three things:

1. A comparable package, ideally rail, tunneling or major civils, named by contractor where you are allowed to.
2. The accreditations the package asks for, stated plainly.
3. One delivery fact a package manager cares about, such as lead time, volume supplied or a site you worked on.

Split the work before anyone sends. When several reps send, I give each one their own accounts and territory, so no lead ever hears from two of us. On HS2 that means one owner per JV and per section.

Each person on the list then gets one sequence that runs across LinkedIn and email. Prefer a senior team to handle it for you? Our cold email agency and LinkedIn outreach agency services cover exactly that.

What should a supplier send first?

The first message should be short and built around proof. It asks for a call, so save the full product range for that call.

Use this formula:

1. The package line. Name the HS2 section or package type you are writing about.
2. The proof line. One comparable job, with the contractor or project type and one number.
3. The fit line. The accreditation or approval that package needs, if you hold it.
4. The ask. A short call before the package is tendered, so they know what you can supply.
5. The signature. Your name, title and a link to a page with the case studies.

A made-up example of the shape, for a drainage products supplier writing to a package manager:

Subject: drainage on your HS2 section

Hi Sarah, I saw drainage listed in the JV pipeline for your section. We supplied 1,800 meters of precast drainage to a tier 1 on a rail civils job last year, delivered to a fixed site schedule. We are RISQS registered and hold ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. Worth 15 minutes before the package goes out, so you know what we can supply and how fast?

Your LinkedIn profile and case study page do the second half of the selling. If you have no rail job to point to yet, read what to put in a cold email when you have no proof.

Skip intent data here. It is a tool, not the name of the game, and it only pays off when the market is big. If 2,000 companies are in your market and signals show on about 10 of them, an offer the whole list can say yes to beats chasing those 10. One HS2 section and one package type is a shorter list still, so research every account by hand.

When to contact a buyer depends on what you can see about the package:

The engagement row is not hypothetical. HS2's early market engagement notice for professional services asked for expressions of interest by 21 August 2026. It planned supplier broadcasts, questionnaires, roundtables and one-to-one meetings, and said taking part was not a condition for bidding later.

What is the fastest practical plan for the next 30 days?

Keep the account list narrow and the sequence long:

1. Week 1: get visible. Register on CompeteFor, download the two indirect contract files, save a Find a Tender search for HS2, and mark every package that matches a job you have delivered.
2. Week 1 to 2: build the list. Pick the tier 1s and tier 2s on those packages, find the titles from the map above, and audit the list once more before sending. Verify every email address first, so the bounce rate stays below 0.5%.
3. Week 2: fix the proof. Write one short case study per comparable job, update the LinkedIn profiles of everyone who will send, and check that your sending domains are separate from your main one. The domains and inboxes setup covers what that takes.
4. Week 2 to 4: run the sequence. Run one sequence across LinkedIn and email for each person, with at least 5 to 6 touches in total. In our campaigns, the third follow-up, with real time between messages, is usually the one that works best.
5. Week 4: read the replies. Sort them by package and by date, and put every "not yet" in a calendar for the month that package is due.

Be honest about what month one can show. Meetings can land inside the first 30 days. The orders behind them often take 4 months or more, and cycles of 6 to 12 months are normal in B2B. On HS2, where packages are still being reviewed and resequenced, expect the same gap between the first call and the order.

So plan for a quarter at minimum before you judge the channel, and expect about 6 months before it runs at full strength.

By day 30 you should have a short list of named package owners, and each of them should already have seen your proof. If not, fix that before sending more.

Not sure which HS2 package buyer to approach first? Bring your product and the layer you sell into to a call and we will narrow it down.