Decision

The Interim Director of Capital Programmes has approved the award of a contract for the completion of building condition surveys to Rapleys LLP (Company Number OC308311) over a 24-month period at a contract price of £261,230 as the highest scoring tenderer in accordance with the most advantageous tender criteria

Reasons for the decision

The Council requires a suitably qualified and experienced Chartered Building Surveying Company to carry out building condition surveys and produce planned preventative maintenance assessments covering the building fabric, mechanical and electrical installations of the Council’s built asset portfolio.
The purpose of the commission is to provide accurate, up-to-date information detailing the condition of all Council buildings to allow for an effective building maintenance strategy, improve building condition and support informed decision making. This will enable the Council to implement a strategic planned approach to the maintenance and repair of buildings, reducing the need for ‘reactive’ repairs, ultimately resulting in an improvement in the overall condition of assets. The formulation of a structured Future Maintenance Plan will provide a strategy for working to ensure assets are enhanced, improved and capitalised in line with accurate baseline conditional information and data.
The information will also be utilised to assist with well-informed decision making in relation to capital expenditure requirements and asset use profiles.
Funding for the commission will be sourced from Statutory Health & Safety Compliance cost code D8006.
A detailed survey specification outlining the key requirements, desired outcomes and appropriate methods for capturing building condition information was issued in April 2026 to eight suppliers and a tender exercise undertaken. Three bids were received. The bids were evaluated having regard to the most advantageous tenderer criteria as detailed in the exempt Appendix, with the following weightings Price 50%, Quality/Technical 40% and Social Value 10%.
Rapleys LLP was the preferred tenderer, scoring the highest having regard to the evaluation criteria.
Appendix 1 contains exempt information as defined in Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972. It is in the public interest to exclude the press and public under Paragraph 3 ‘Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding the information).’

Alternative options considered

The alternative to commissioning a programme of condition surveys would be to continue utilising the existing incomplete and out-of-date building condition information as the basis for the identification & planning of building maintenance works for the limited number of buildings where information is available. This would be combined with continuing the current approach to carrying out reactive / emergency repairs when individual building components fail or go beyond the threshold of repair. This option of continuing to prioritise future building maintenance requirements based on anecdotal or incomplete information will not allow for a holistic approach to building maintenance and will mean continuing with an unplanned, reactive and costly approach to building maintenance and fabric renewal.
An alternative, that is not deemed acceptable, would be to undertake condition assessments on an urgency basis with older more dilapidated buildings prioritised with remaining assets then programmed for assessment in the future. This approach is considered unsuitable as prioritisation based solely on current condition will not take account of use profile, service offering or the potential rapid onset of future deterioration. Nor will it allow for the grouping of similar repair works across different buildings with the associated economies of scale possible as a result of adopting a portfolio wide approach.
Undertaking the commission in-house would not be feasible due to the scale of the requirement and the lack of suitably experienced and available specialist staff. The current and new departmental structure(s) do not allow for the additional senior level Building Surveyors and Building Services Engineers that would be required to complete this work.
Operating with incomplete or no condition information is not a viable option as any effective maintenance planning or intervention is not possible without accurate records of building condition.