Decision details

This report makes the following recommendations:

1. To implement Contract Standing Order 9.07.1 (c), which provides that a Director may award, assign, or novate contracts valued at less than £500,000 (five hundred thousand pounds) for the purposes of appointing Montagu Evans to provide commercial advice to support and assist the development options for new housing and urban design framework for Broadwater Farm Estate. The preferred contractor will be commissioned to review and scrutinise the outputs emerging from the separately appointed consultant Design Team, over a period of 18 months leading to a resident ballot.

2. Award a contract to Montagu Evans for commercial advice up to a Maximum value of £200.000 + VAT.

Following the identification of the structural issues in the residential blocks on the Broadwater Farm Estate, the Council and Homes for Haringey started work on the Estate Improvement Programme. The Programme aims to draw together the projects put in place to respond to the structural issues and seeks to look ahead to what is needed next in terms of strategic intervention. As part of this programme, the Council has commissioned architects to develop detailed design proposals for building new homes on the sites of two blocks (Tangmere and Northolt), which are due to be demolished. The architects will also develop a wider design framework, which will set out a vision and design objectives to guide future change across the Estate and will develop proposals for new homes on three opportunity sites.

To progress and support this design work, the Council requires a suitably qualified advisor to provide a full range of property, commercial and financial advice. This is so the Council can develop and implement a delivery strategy for delivery new homes and improvements across the Estate, as well as develop a bespoke financial model for the Estate, which can be used to inform investment decisions.

Following a procurement process utilising the Council’s Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS), to seek such an advisor, the Council is seeking to award this contract to Montagu Evans. In total, four bidders returned a completed tender for this contract.

The Council could choose not to proceed with the procurement process by not appointing Montagu Evans. However, this option is not being recommended as Montagu Evans have submitted a compliant tender which meets the Council’s requirements. The Council needs to secure this advice to ensure that the design work is deliverable and to ensure that there is a clear, viable strategy in place to move from design through to delivery.