Decision

To enter into a contract with DCA Associates for the provision of an agency worker to work as a Part-Time Interim Acquisitions Project Manager to support year 1 delivery of the Local Authority Housing Fund (LAHF) project.
The cost of the contract will not exceed £9,048 (Excluding VAT) and the cost of the contract will be fully met by the LAHF revenue grant funding.
The contract end date in 31 March 2027.

Reasons for the decision

In March 2026 the Council received notification of an allocation of funding from the LAHF Round 4. This comprises a capital grant of £1,387,000 and a revenue grant of £9,048 to acquire six homes that will be used for temporary accommodation or to house families on the Afghan Resettlement Programme.
This funding was not expected and there is no current resource to lead the project. To deliver the project and identify and acquire six suitable homes will require a resource uplift within the Affordable Housing Delivery Team in the interim to assist with the establishment of a robust framework to deliver this work and to mitigate the risk of the Council failing to achieve the year one deliverables within the tight timeframe available and potentially having to re-pay grant.
In delivering previous LAHF round acquisitions, colleagues at WBC have utilised an interim specialist consultant resource to assist. It is proposed that this resource also be deployed at GBC given their experience of the funding programme requirements and scope of work. This resource will support the team to set up the project and assist with the year one deliverables with a view to transitioning the delivery to be resourced wholly within the team in later stages. The cost of this additional resource can be met by the revenue funding element of the LAHF allocation.
The resource could not be appointed via the neutral vendor service, therefore the Council must enter into a contract with the agency directly.

Alternative options considered

Attempts to use the preferred neutral vendor service for this appointment were unsuccessful hence the proposal to enter into a contract with the agency directly.