Issue - meetings

Report of the Director of Placemaking and Housing. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Housing Services, Private Renters, and Planning.

To approve the Procurement Strategy for long term delivery of major component renewal, energy works, and additional homes to council homes 2022-32.

The Cabinet Member for Housing Services, Private Renters, and Planning introduced the report which sought approval for the Procurement Strategy for long term delivery of major component renewal, energy works, and additional homes to Council homes 2022-32.

The Cabinet Member highlighted that this was an ambitious procurement strategy covering 10 years with 4 long-term partnering contracts, covering distinct geographical areas to deliver benefits to the capital housing build programme and deliver substantial benefits to residents.

It was noted that the proposed decisions would enable the Council to deliver the Housing capital programme effectively with contract management key to achieving outcomes.

Following questions from Cllr Connor, the following information was noted:

• With regards to the £800m spend , it was important to note the context of this sum over 10 years and note that previously Homes for Haringey had underspent in this area. This capital budget allocation was important in supporting provision of the number of repairs that were needed to bring a lot of dated housing stock up to required specifications. It was noted that the Council were already spending at this level over a longer period of time but not necessarily getting the benefits which will be sought through the procurement strategy.

• Part of the monitoring of the contracts would involve residents, and this will be part of the tenant’s strategy and will form part of the contractual arrangements that the partners will sign up to. Assurance was provided that housing services would bring in a team to support the monitoring of the contract and have an officer dedicated to resident engagement and the training of these residents to take this role forward. The Council will look at resourcing this immediately.

• The plan was for a constant stream of apprentices. The current contracts made it difficult to appoint apprenticeships over long term but now with a long-term agreement there was scope for a rolling training programme of apprenticeships. Homes for Haringey had previous good experience in training apprentices to a high standard and this would be utilised.

RESOLVED

To approve the proposed procurement strategy for the delivery of major works to the Council’s housing stock as set out in Section 7 of the report.

Reasons for decision

At £800 million, split across four contractors, this will be one of the largest procurements ever undertaken by the Council. It is, therefore, felt appropriate to ask for Cabinet support for the partnering approach at an early stage to enable officers to progress the procurement to resident consultation, tender and award stage over the next 12 months.

The proposed route to market will enable us to address many issues with the current approach including not meeting annual delivery targets, having to undertaken full procurements to address urgent issues to blocks, not maximising the social value and community wealth opportunities which should be achieved from this level of investment, the high costs of undertaking regular procurement and that the stock does not appear transformed once investment works have been completed.

Single contract procurement  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26