Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Housing Services, Private Renters and Planning introduced the report and advised that the Council remained committed to delivering the new era of Council homes that Haringey’s communities needed.  She added that the list at appendix 1 of the report set out the properties requiring Voids Works, and the specification at appendix 2 of the report identified the works required to each of the properties.  The works were necessary to ensure that properties would be immediately available for letting.

The report sought approval to deliver Voids Works to the properties shown on the List at Appendix 1 of the report in order to bring these properties up to the approved Specification shown at Appendix 2.

In response to questions from the Cabinet Member it was noted that:

-       The contract had been tendered at a fixed price.

-       The winning contractor was well known to the Council and had achieved the best scores in terms of quality.

The Cabinet Member for Housing Services, Private Renters and Planning RESOLVED to:

1.            Approve pursuant to the Council’s Contract Standing Orders (CSO) 9.07.01d, and CSP 16.02, the appointment of Bidder A (named in the exempt part of the report)to undertake building works as set out in Appendix 2 to the properties set out in Appendix 1 for a total contract sum as set out in the exempt part of this report and within a three month period following the start of Works.

Reasons for decisions

The Council requires the Works set out in Appendix 2 to be completed to all of its properties in order that they can be let.

Following a formal procurement process, a contractor has been identified to undertake these works.

Alternative options considered

It would be possible not to appoint a contractor to complete these Works. However, this option was rejected as it does not support the Council’s commitment to deliver affordable Council Homes and would perpetuate the void letting situation that currently persists. 

This contract was procured via a competitive tender through the LCP major works framework Lot 1.1B and HPCS for mini competition, using a standard, fixed price, JCT Contract with Contractor’s design. This is the recommended route for a contract of this value. An alternative option would have been to do a direct appointment, but this option was rejected due to the estimated contract value of the scheme and to give opportunities for local small to medium size contractors to submit a tender.

The report sought approval from the Cabinet Member for Finance and Local Investment to award a contract for the provision of a Procurement and Contract Management (also known as 'e-procurement') solution in accordance with Contract Standing Order (CSO) 9.01.2 b) (Restricted Tender process) and CSO 9.07.1(e) (Award of contracts above £500,000) and CSO16.02 (the Leader may allocate decisions to the Cabinet Member having the relevant portfolio responsibility).

The Council used several platforms, Adam Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS), Haringey Procurement and Contract System (HPCS), OpenText, SAP Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) and SAP Vendor Invoice Management (VIM), to manage its e-procurement activities, handling over £550 million of transactions and about 90,000 payments. Of these, the contracts for HPCS platform (including contract management) and Adam DPS would expire in 2024 and both systems would need replacing.

The contract end dates for these systems vary across 2023-24 and cannot be extended further. Moreover, there are outstanding audit recommendations that the current solutions cannot provide for.

The contract was for an initial period of 5 years with an option to extend for a further 2 years. The estimated contract value inclusive of the extension period was stated in paragraph 3.1 of this report and the anticipated start date would be 01/10/2023 and the end date (if extending) would be 30/09/2030.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Local Investment RESOLVED

That the Cabinet Member for Finance and Local Investment approves, in accordance with Contract Standing Order (CSO’s) 9.01.2b, 9.07.1e and 16.02, the award of a contract for the supply and support of an e-Procurement solution to Supplier C for an initial 5-year period at an estimated value of £1,974,833 with an option of a two-year extension at a further estimated value of £884,556 for a maximum estimated contract value of £2,859,389.

Reasons for decision:

The current contract for the Haringey Procurement and Contract System (HPCS) platform expires on 11 June 2024 and the Adam DPS platform expires on 28 November 2024, with no further options to extend. Page 2 Page 3 of 6

The new e-procurement platform directly supported activities that would contribute to more effective, more compliant procurement and, as a result, greater value for money for the Council and residents of the borough.

The approach supported the Digital Strategy to adopt best in class existing processes and simplify internal processes and practices to meet industry proven standards rather than a more bespoke ‘adapt’ approach, which was agreed to be more expensive, more time-consuming, and more costly, over the long-term, to sustain and maintain.

The new platform would also deliver the recommendations of the internal audit report which include: - Establishing a consolidated contracts register - Enforcing use of a corporate sourcing solution for all procurements - Ensuring supplier credit checks are completed where required prior to award of contract - Keeping an audit trail of activity related to procurements - Compliance with the requirement to publish all awards over £25K.

The award of contract would deliver: - Compliant procurement and contract management processes  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6

This report sought approval from the Cabinet Member for Council Housebuilding, Placemaking, and Local Economy to terminate existing Construction Contracts with Contractor A for Sites 1,2 and 3 and simultaneously enter in to an alternative Construction Management Agreements for Sites 1,2 and 3 with Contractor A and direct Contracts with sub – contractors.

The Cabinet Member stated that the new arrangements were useful and enabled a direct relationship with subcontractors.

The Cabinet Member for Council House Building, Placemaking and Local Economy RESOLVED

1. To grant approval of the mutual termination of Construction Contracts between the Council and Contractor A at Sites 1,2 and 3.

2. To grant approval for a Contract for Construction Management between the Contractor A for Sites 1, 2 and 3 at a fee of 4% of the outstanding costs to complete fixed at the date of entry in to the Construction Management Contract with no mechanism for uplift.

3. To grant approval for direct award Contracts between the Council and nominated sub contractors for the Sites 1,2 and 3 and delegate to the Director of Placemaking and Housing authority to award individual sub contracts subject to approval from the Head of Procurement to each of those direct awards and approval from the Head of Legal and Head of Finance ( Housing ) to the terms of those direct awards.

4.    To approve to delegate to the Assistant Director of Housing authority to sign off any instructions that may be required to be discharged from the contingencies being sought for approval in the report.

Reason for Decision

To ensure that the Council’s Housing Delivery Programme continued to provide high quality Council Housing at affordable rents, constructed to a good standard and made available to new Tenants as soon as possible in accordance with the Council’s overriding Policy objective of providing 3,000 new Council Homes by 2032.

Alternative options considered

Following discussions with Contractor A, which accorded with the Mediation

Provisions of the JCT ( Joint Contracts Tribunal ), the Council have considered a

number of mitigations which include:

a.    Increased spend on Sites 1, 2 and 3 without additional Contractual variations, or, financial checks – This mitigation would not satisfactorily protect the Council’s financial position.

b.    Terminated contracts on Sites 1, 2 and 3 either by mutual consent, or, by virtue of Contractor A having to enter insolvency – This mitigation would require the Council to reprocure all of those Works at costs that would be disproportionately high.

It is considered that neither of the alternatives listed above would meet the Council’s value for money requirements and would result in an unacceptable delay to the completion of much needed Council Housing in the Borough.