Helping to shape public sector construction

Frameworks

Helping to shape public sector construction

Towards the end of last year, the government awarded a major new procurement agreement which will help shape public sector construction - Construction Works and Associated Services

In the March Budget, Chancellor Rishi Sunak promised to raise infrastructure spending to its highest in decades, with the Treasury pledging to triple the average net investment made over the last 40 years into rail and road, affordable housing, broadband and research, leading to the ‘highest levels of investment in real terms since 1955 - more than £600 billion over the five-year Parliament.

The day following the Budget, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick set out proposals to bring Britain’s planning system into the 21st century as part of plans to get the country building. As such, councils will be encouraged to take a more innovative approach to home building by ensuring redevelopment of high streets is housing-led, building upwards and above and around stations.

From April, the government will launch a register of brownfield sites which will map out unused land as part of plans to encourage councils to make the most of this land first – backed by £400 million to bring this mostly unused land back to use. The government will also review how places assess how many homes are needed in their area and incentivise those that deliver on those numbers. All local authorities will be required to have up-to-date Local Plans in place by December 2023, or see government intervention, so enough homes are built for their communities. This follows the announcement of £12 billion of investment to build more affordable homes – the biggest cash investment in affordable housing for a decade.

Construction and coronavirus

However, not all has been positive for the construction industry. Since the outbreak of coronavirus, many have been calling for clarification on the role and status of construction workers, especially given their omission from the government’s key workers list. Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said that those who cannot do their jobs from home should go to work to ‘keep the country running’, highlighting that construction work can continue so long as people are two metres apart.

However, the decision has labelled as prioritising the economy over public health, with Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, telling the BBC that the decision to allow non-essential work appeared to have been made for ‘economic reasons’ and argued that ‘health reasons alone really should be guiding all decision-making’. Some builders and construction workers have said they feel ‘unprotected’ going to work, while others are under pressure from employers to go in.

Helping the country to build more

All public sector bodies can use Crown Commercial Service’s Construction Works and Associated Services agreement to find companies to help build new schools, hospitals, office buildings, universities, prisons, and houses. The framework agreement has a maximum potential value of £30 billion over the next seven years, and prevents public bodies having to run their own costly and time-consuming procurement exercises.

Some builders and construction workers have said they feel ‘unprotected’ going to work amid the coronavirus outbreak, while others are under pressure from employers to go in

It is hoped that Construction Works and Associated Services will help both the government and the construction sector in achieving objectives under the government’s Construction Strategy and Industrial Strategy, which was formed in collaboration with industry and supports sustainable construction.

Construction Works and Associated Services is the first government-led construction agreement which can be used by the whole public sector. Organisations will use the agreement to find companies to construct new buildings, refurbish existing properties, undertake repairs and demolition, and decommission redundant assets. In October, when the framework agreement was launched, CCS named 128 suppliers, including 57 small and medium-sized enterprises. That number has now jumped to 137, spread across different Lots.

There are 11 lots of varying levels of complexity and value of work from £0 – £3 million up to more than £80 million.

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This agreement will help public bodies across the country carry out the work needed to build much-needed new housing as well as improve schools and hospital buildings

This includes general construction and also specialist market areas: housing; high-rise; maritime; airfields; demolition/ decommissioning; and construction management. Individual lots are divided into regional sub-lots appropriate to the market sector and value range. The lower value lots support direct access to SME suppliers.

All of the commonly used procurement routes, tendering methods, payment arrangements and standard forms of contract are available. Standard common government boilerplate clauses are included for things such as GDPR and intellectual property rights. Individual customers have the freedom to include additional project or customer specific contract amendments.

The framework supports the implementation of government policies and strategies: building information modelling (BIM); life cycle cost; prompt payment; project bank accounts; early contractor involvement; and social value.

SME involvement

The new agreement was designed to ensure a level playing-field for SMEs. There are lots for different contract values and regional lots open to local suppliers, to ensure that smaller companies can compete for places. Currently, close to 99 per cent of all providers in the construction industry are SMEs. Housing associations and local authorities can use the agreement to commission house building. CCS will engage directly with commissioners to provide procurement guidance, helping the government to meet its target of building 300,000 homes each year.

Upon its launch, Simon Hart, the Minister for Implementation said: “This agreement will help public bodies across the country carry out the work needed to build much-needed new housing as well as improve schools and hospital buildings. I know this will be welcomed by people up and down the country and I really look forward to seeing some of the incredible projects this agreement will help to facilitate.”

Sam Ulyatt, Commercial Director for Buildings at CCS, added: “This new agreement provides a solid foundation for public sector bodies to achieve the best outcomes and value for their investment across the whole construction lifecycle. The principles of this agreement are collaboration and integration with supply chains, boosting innovation at a critical time and supporting the government’s work towards achieving a zero carbon 2050 target.” L

FURTHER INFORMATION

www.crowncommercial.gov.uk/ agreements/RM6088