Purpose

Disrepair and stock condition surveys to the
council's social housing stock,

Decision

1.    
Appendix 1 is not for publication on the basis that it contains
information relating to the financial or business affairs of any
particular person (including the authority holding that
information) as set out in paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the Local
Government Act 1972 (as amended).
 
2.    
To approve a contract award to the Preferred Supplier, identified
in Appendix 1 (the “Preferred Supplier”) for the
Contract Award Value included in Appendix 1 (the “Contract
Award Value”) for a contract period of 2 years using
Workstream 1A of the Framework. We aim to incept the contract as
soon as allowable.
 

Reasons for the decision

To continue to support the Housing Repairs
service and provide additional temporary capacity relating to
disrepair and stock condition surveys which will provide accurate
data for investment decisions and assist with defending
unsubstantiated disrepair cases.
 
 

Alternative options considered

1.    
Do nothing or decommission the service – Not
recommended
 
This option is not
recommended as the Council cannot address the matters with its
current consultant due to having reached the contract value, so
needs to reprocure this requirement to ensure compliance with the
Procurement Act 2023.
 
2.    
Deliver the supplies, services, and/or works in-house (make/buy
decision) – Not recommended
 
The Council does
not currently have the capacity in-house to deliver these disrepair
surveys, so to fulfil our obligations, we need to procure the
works, to be delivered by an external consultant. The Housing
Repairs service has recently undertaken a recruitment exercise, but
this was not successful.
 
3.    
Undertake a full regulated procurement process, advertised to
the market – Not recommended
 
It is recognised
that a full regulated procurement process, advertised to the market
would attract the widest competition and achieve the best value for
money for the Council. We are working towards this on the current
procurement of the new repairs contract, however, the disadvantage
to this approach for the disrepair surveys, is the time it takes to
procure. Competitive procurement can take between 10 and 16 months,
which is not a timeframe we have available to us on this occasion,
so an alternative compliant route to procure needs to be used.
 
4.    
Procure using a suitable and compliant framework or Dynamic
Purchasing System (DPS), either by way of a mini competition or
direct award – Recommended
 
Similar to the full regulated procurement process,
advertised to the market, the timescales associated with running a
successful mini competition for these works are estimated between 6
and 12 months to complete, which is a not a timeframe we have
available to us on this occasion. It is for this reason that a
compliant direct award from a suitable and compliant framework is
proposed to be the best option for the Council and its tenants.
 
Please refer to the report for more
details.