The meeting of the Officer Key Decision for Newham Council on Wednesday 16 September 2026 was scheduled to discuss the appointment of a company to manage a national house frames project. The primary focus was on the development of a pattern book for standard house designs.

Appointment of Populo Design and Build for the National Standards House Frames Project - Pattern Book Pilot

The meeting was scheduled to consider the appointment of Populo Design and Build to manage the National Standards House Frames Project, specifically focusing on the development of a pattern book for standard house designs. This initiative is a collaboration between Newham Council, other local authorities, and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).

The report pack indicated that the Corporate Director of Inclusive Economy, Housing and Culture, Paul Kitson, was recommended to approve entering into a Development Management Services Agreement with Populo Design & Build. This agreement would be for the delivery of the pattern book at a cost of up to £0.740 million, including contingency.

The project aims to create a collection of building designs that outline architectural templates, including building size and layout, to support repeatable use in future developments. The pattern book will concentrate on building structure and technical elements, allowing for standardisation while enabling local authorities to tailor the external appearance to suit their specific areas.

The MHCLG has allocated funding of £740,000 to Newham Council for this project. Populo Design & Build proposed to structure the project into five workstreams: Land, Product, Planning, Placemaking, and Economics. They also planned to procure core sub-contractors for technical design, cost consultancy, construction supply chain, masterplan architecture, and planning consultancy.

The report highlighted that this project aligns with the Council's Corporate Plan 2022-26, Building a Fairer Newham, which includes a target to provide at least 1,500 new homes by 2026. The pattern book is intended to speed up the design process, reduce costs, and accelerate the delivery of new homes. The designs developed are intended to be made open access for all local authorities to use, maximising standardisation benefits across the sector.

The report also noted that the Council owns Populo Design & Build, allowing for a direct award of contract without a competitive tendering process under the Teckal exemption of the Procurement Act 2023. The Council would be required to publish a transparency notice before making this direct award.

The key deliverables for the project include a pattern book with standard house designs deliverable through various construction methods, designs that are ready to use with explored viability and planning considerations, and the identification of suitable sites for piloting the pattern book. The project's timeline indicated that the agreement of the pattern book and potential sites, along with engagement with the supply chain and stakeholders, was scheduled for September to December 2026.

The report also touched upon financial, legal, equalities, and procurement implications. It stated that the Council would pass the grant funding to Populo to undertake the development of the pattern book on its behalf. Legal implications included the direct award of the contract to Populo under the Procurement Act 2023. The equalities implications noted the Council's duty under the Equality Act 2010 to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination and advance equality of opportunity. Procurement implications included ensuring compliance with relevant regulations and requiring third parties to make designs open access.

The report indicated that a decision was to be made by Paul Kitson, Corporate Director of Inclusive Economy, Housing and Culture. The decision, once made, could not be implemented until the sixth working day following its publication to allow members to consider calling it in.