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RESOLVED:
 
To approve the appointment of Bidder D to provide Multi-
Disciplinary, Engineering and Technical Consultancy Services to the
Council’s New Homes Programme, following a Restricted Tender
Procedure under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015
 
To approve entering into a contract with Bidder D for a
duration of three years to a value of  £2,922,650 excl
VAT.
 
Reason(s) For Decision
 
1. 
On 12 December 2022
Cabinet Approval was received for the New Homes Programme, as part
of the Council’s ambitious plan to bring forward 1,000 new
Council homes for social rent by 2026. The new programme includes
15 anchor site locations on Housing Revenue Account land identified
through the Asset Review process as having the potential to
accommodate new homes along with surrounding improvements. In order
to progress to the design development and planning stages a series
of consultant teams providing a full range of design and
development professional services must now be assembled.
 
2. 
This new programme of
housing delivery is expected to provide over 400 new homes across
the borough, enabling the Council to continue to address
Hackney’s acute and ongoing crisis of housing
affordability.
 
3. 
The professional
services included in this report are wide-ranging and in some cases
highly specialist, including environmental consultants, mechanical
and electrical engineers and specialist technical consultants in
relation to building safety, fire engineering, highways and
transport, ground conditions, ecology, trees and utilities, amongst
other disciplines.
 
4. 
The range of services
and specialist expertise required is typical of the contemporary
construction and housing development process. Careful consideration
has been given particularly to securing appropriate expertise for
the rapidly evolving building safety and sustainability contexts,
and to maintaining industry best practice and implementing lessons
learned from existing and previous regeneration
programmes. 
 
5. 
The December 2022
Cabinet approval provided budget and authority to commence design
development work on the new sites and to submit planning
applications. It requested a further report in due course on the
proposed plan for construction delivery. The consultant services
for procurement in this report reflect that position by including
for services from RIBA Stage 0/1 (Initiation) to RIBA Stage 3+
(Developed Design, Planning and Tender).
 
6. 
Whereas the in-house
Asset Review Team and Regeneration Strategic Design (RSD) team have
prepared initial project appraisals and capacity options for the
sites, much more significant design development, site due diligence
and technical work is now required to develop implementable and
viable designs and to secure planning permissions. The Council does
not have the in-house expertise nor capacity to undertake this
specialist work directly therefore the only option is to procure
these services from external consultants. This approach also has
the advantage of securing the expertise and skills of sector
leading designers and engineers to bring forward designs for high
quality, sustainable, safe and affordable homes and places in
Hackney.
 
7. 
A detailed options
appraisal on the structure of the consultant services across the
new projects has been carried out, assessing key priorities and
risks against a range of consultant team structures and contracting
arrangements. See section 5 below. The key drivers and issues to be
considered are around suitable consultant capacity and financial
stability proportional to the diverse project characteristics;
access to the required specialist services for technical, quality,
environmental and building safety assurance; cost efficiency
including Council project management resources, socio-economic
benefits, and EDI and procurement policy objectives.
 
Alternative Options (Considered and
Rejected)
 
1. 
A number of options
for this procurement and the wider NHP procurement strategy were
appraised at the Business Case stage and are provided in section
7.5 of the Business Case document.
 
2. 
With respect to
in-sourcing, the council does not have the required expertise nor
resources to provide these extensive and specialist services
in-house. The engagement of professional consultants is therefore
essential to enable the New Homes Programme to be
delivered.