The Hackney Council's Cabinet Procurement Insourcing Committee convened to discuss a General Exception Notice concerning the Colville Heat Network project. This notice addresses an urgent need to amend the procurement strategy for the project. The urgency stems from the timing of bid submissions, which necessitated a decision before the subsequent scheduled meeting to maintain the project's commercial viability and ensure low heat costs for consumers.

Colville Heat Network Procurement Strategy Update

The committee was scheduled to discuss an amendment to the procurement strategy for the Colville Heat Network ¹. The need for this amendment arose after the receipt of bids for the Design Build Operate Maintain (DBOM) Contract. According to the General Exception Notice, analysis of these bids indicated that a change to the procurement strategy was necessary to achieve the best value for money and to align with the commercial parameters outlined in the Outline Business Case approved by the Cabinet in June 2024.

The report pack states that the bids were received too late to provide the standard 28 days' notice before the committee meeting. However, delaying the decision until the next meeting was deemed unfeasible due to the potential impact on the project's commercial requirements, including maintaining low heat costs for customers. The report pack explains the reason for the General Exception as follows:

Analysis of the bids for the Design Build Operate Maintain (DBOM) Contract for the Colville Heat Network has shown that a change to the procurement strategy is needed to achieve the best value for money in the project and to deliver within the commercial parameters set out in the Outline Business Case approved at Cabinet in June 2024. The bids were received too late for 28 days notice to be given before the Cabinet Procurement and Insourcing Committee on 7 July 2025 but waiting until the next meeting is not possible if the commercial requirements of the project which include maintaining low heat costs for customers are to be met.

The lead member for this matter was listed as Councillor Young, and the author of the report was named as Jeremy Martin.