The procurement process is set to resume for the tender of a major UK flood defence contract, after the failure of the West Coast Mainline procurement process, which raised fears that flaws were systemic within government procurement and halted the contract.

15 bidders are believed to have spent £1 million on the suspended procurement process, with engineering firm Atkins widely rumoured at the time to be the preferred vendor.

The procurement process is expected to resume next Tuesday. A Environment Agency spokesman said of the delay: “We do not believe delivery of flood defence projects will be held up by the re-tendering and are confident the amount of new work which bidders are required to do will be minimal."