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 award a contract for fire safety support services by external consultants which includes support in key fire safety programmes and undertaking fire risk assessments.

The Cabinet Member for Housing Services, Private Renters and Planning introduced the report which sought approval for the award of a new call-off contract for the provision of Fire Safety Consultancy services to the Council, for 4 years from November 2023 to November 2027.

The Cabinet Member outlined that the Council required the support of specialist fire safety services to deliver Fire Safety programmes. These programmes were critical to the safety of residents, supporting Haringey in recovering its compliance position in line with commitments to the Regulator for Social Housing.

It was noted that the Council’s commitment to the Regulator following the Council’s self-referral required a high level of competency and consistency in delivering fire safety risk assessments, surveys and works inspections. Quality was therefore prioritised over lowest price, when evaluating the consultants’ submissions.

The Cabinet Member outlined that the Council could not allow this service to fail due to lack of resources, whether in or outsourced. By ensuring there was a suitable longer-term external supplier in place, the Council would be able to demonstrate commitment to learning from a collaborative approach with the Regulator for Social Housing and, as far as possible, ensure the safety of residents and prevent any further non-compliance.

In addition to supporting the in-house team, the report confirmed the commitment to recruit to the current vacancies so that, as much as possible, this work can be undertaken by directly employed personnel in future.

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

-      With regards to fire and safety inspection breaches identified by the Housing Regulator, there have been over 1000 assessments completed and the Council was on course to meet the required protection targets by March 2024.

-      The principal decision was to have an in-house team for delivering fire safety compliance. However, given the specialist nature of this role, there would always need to be specialist help enlisted and to further help reduce the number of visits required.

Following consideration of the exempt information at item 24 and agreement of the exempt recommendations,

RESOLVED

1. To note that following the completion of tender evaluations, Contractor A (who is identified in the Exempt part of this report), emerged as the highest-ranking bidder, having achieved the highest combined score for quality and price, and

2. To approve the award of a call-off contract to Contractor A to a maximum value of £4.0m over 4 years.

Reasons for decision

In order to deliver the Fire Safety programmes, which includes Fire Risk Assessments, Surveys, Specifications and Schedules of Works, Reports and Quality Assurance, Haringey Council requires the support of specialist fire safety services, including risk assessments, door inspections, project management, surveying, cost management, and quality assurance from ‘Competent Persons’.

The contract is awarded based on a call-off arrangement. This means that only works instructed at any time under the contract will incur costs which will be charged in accordance with the tendered schedule of rates. The rates have been compared to wider market rates to ensure  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42