Purpose

This report seeks approval to award a contract
to Unboxed Consulting Ltd (hereafter titled ‘Unboxed’)
for the provision of the Research and Development (R and D –
to include User Research and other disciplines) input into the
Building Control Alpha project. The provision will be funded by the
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG)
digital strategic projects grant funding, which is ringfenced and
has been awarded to Lambeth Council specifically for the engagement
of specialists necessary to deliver the project. The provision of
this work is therefore cost neutral to the Council.

The proposed contract has been procured via G-Cloud 14, where a
direct award was undertaken after entering required search
criteria. The criteria used for this search on G Cloud 14, was
“Prototype”, “End to end” and
“Stakeholder Mapping”. This resulted in three suppliers
being identified and these were Marvell Consulting Ltd, Unboxed and
Ove Arup and Partners Ltd. This resulted in confirmation questions
being sent to all suppliers and based on the review of the
information available, the contract is to be awarded to
Unboxed.

Decision

To approve the award of a contract
to Unboxed Consulting Ltd for the provision of Research and
Development (R and D – to include User Research and other
disciplines) input into the Building Control Alpha project funded
through MHCLG grant funding via a Direct Award through the Crown
Commercial Services (CCS) G-Cloud 14 for the period starting in
October 2025 for six months at a cost of £185,000.