CHIC CHAT

Dynamic Purchasing System

Procurement for All (PFA) is another not-for-profit consortium of housing organisations, led by a board of member representatives.

Having carefully assessed the future requirements of PFA’s shareholder members, its Board decided not to undertake any new procurement activities. Knowing that the services it had delivered for many years to the PFA wider membership had added great value, PFA wanted to provide an easily accessible and immediate alternative for both its members and suppliers.

To achieve this, PFA decided to work with CHIC and we are pleased to advise that it has now transferred its Dynamic Purchasing System DPS to CHIC, so that a wide range of DPS services are now available alongside our existing services.

Our 100+ members are primarily from the affordable housing sector but, like PFA, CHIC also provides procurement and commercial support services to a range of other organisations which need to comply with Public Procurement Regulations.

This transfer creates a new and exciting opportunity for the contractors and suppliers on the DPS and an efficient procurement solution for an increased range of organisations.

CHIC already has a wide range of other contract and framework solutions (including merchants, compliance, planned works, planned materials, newbuild off-site manufacture and legal services). In addition, we are now able to offer the following DPS framework solutions to our members:

Click the link to see more: https://www.chicltd.co.uk/dynamic-purchasing-systems

We will ensure that all PFA members can continue to benefit from our range of proven and cost-effective procurement solutions, alongside CHIC’s existing membership.

"CHIC has been seeing a significant increase in demand for an effective, compliant DPS service as an alternative route to market for some time. The transfer of the PFA DPS to CHIC offers housing providers, contractors and suppliers an established, proven and efficient procurement solution. The DPS is a welcome addition to CHIC’s highly regarded product stable”

Maggie Punyer, CHIC’s Chair.

If you would like to find out more information, please get in touch with one of the following CHIC team who will be pleased to explain more:

South West & Wales – vspeakman@chciltd.co.uk

North West & North East – ldixon@chicltd.co.uk

Midlands and South East – ssharman@chicltd.co.uk

Contractors & Suppliers – jscurr@chicltd.co.uk

To assist with the management of the DPS, CHIC is recruiting for a new Procurement Manager. If you know someone who has the relevant expertise and would like to find out more, please get in touch at enquiries@chicltd.co.uk

MORE ABOUT THE DPS

A Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) is similar to an electronic framework agreement, with two exceptions, new suppliers can join at any time and it is run as a completely electronic process.

Dynamic Purchasing Systems are used exclusively by public sector organisations. They save time and money by being a quick and easy way to access goods, services and works through an OJEU compliant route.

CHIC’s DPS is a PCR 2015 compliant procurement solution, giving flexible options for members for all of CHIC’s asset management and development services.

The timescale for tenders is shorter (if required) meaning the DPS can help members respond to urgent procurement needs. The scope of CHIC’s DPS lots is extensive, giving a whole range of solutions to supplement CHIC’s other services. New suppliers can join at any time, to ensure that the offer can be dynamic. CHIC manages the full DPS draw down process on behalf of members.

Suppliers can both join and leave Dynamic Purchasing System arrangements whenever they choose. PCR 2015 withdrew the four year maximum lifecycle for a Dynamic Purchasing System, leaving the timeframe open. In the case of CHIC’s DPS solutions, they will be re-procured every 5 years (next in 2023) to maintain market competitiveness and relevance to members’ needs.

In Other News

We would like to welcome all of the new members that have joined CHIC over the past few months to access some of our services:

Wakefield & District Housing
Bedford Borough Council
Community Gateway Association
Barnet Homes
Richmond Housing Partnership
Settle Group
London Borough of Ealing
Arun District Council

With these organisations, CHIC now has 114 members and is supporting over 300 individual projects.

Our updated legal services framework went live in July. We have since received a lot of interest and many of our members have been using the framework to receive expert advice and cost savings across 3 legal workstream lots. Some of the housing specialist law firms on our framework include:

MSB Solicitors have been appointed to the CHIC panel for Housing and Asset Management and Property and Development.

MSB provide legal services in the Social Housing and Commercial property sectors and harness a niche expertise with a combined experience of over 50 years. MSB has represented a wide range of Registered Provider’s throughout England from RPs’ with a national presence to specialist supported housing providers.

The team is led by Louise Murphy who is a Partner and head of the Housing and Regeneration Team and Brad Armstrong, Partner in the Commercial team. The team specialise in a plethora of areas including housing management, disrepair, leasehold, ASB and asset management, possession matters, commercial and residential property, development and construction law.

The team prides itself in providing robust and cost-effective legal services, in a straight forward manner.

For any enquiries, please contact Louise Murphy at LouiseMurphy@msbsolicitors.co.uk or on 0151 281 9040

Sharratts is a boutique firm of senior housing solicitors providing a professional, affordable service specifically for Registered Providers and other affordable housing providers in relation to development, site acquisition, planning, shared ownership and open market plot sales and other property disposals.

They provide commercial, pragmatic and practical advice in a responsive helpful and approachable manner.

Sharratts is committed to excellence, is a recognised social housing specialist and is acknowledged within the sector as an expert in its field.

Sharratts has been appointed to Lot 3 of the CHIC Framework and the lead contact is Leo Stevens (Partner) who can be contacted at:

E: Leos@sharratts-london.co.uk

T: 01959 568018

W: http://www.sharratts-london.co.uk/

Penningtons Manches Cooper’s social housing team offers CHIC members the full range of legal services.

Lot 1 – Corporate, Governance and Finance

Corp/Gov – Gemma Bell
Finance – Charlotte D’Avola
Commercial, Procurement, IP & IT – Chris Shelley
Regulatory and Commercial Dispute Resolution - Phillip D’Costa
Employment and Pensions – Eugene Wojciechowski

Lot 3 – Property and Development

Development – Andrew Casstles
Construction/procurement – Peter Massey
Shared ownership/residential property – Linda Storey
Commercial property – Donald Lambert

If you’d like to speak to one of our lawyers about a particular legal issue, please get in touch.

Linda Storey

Linda.Storey@penningtonslaw.com

T: +44 (0)1256 407115 | M: +44 (0)7879235223

Procurement Policy Note

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George Boyd

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News From The Sector

Social Housing White Paper Note

The Charter for Social Housing Residents Social Housing White Paper was released earlier in November. Introduced by the Prime Minister, the paper sets to make clear the standards that every social tenant in England is entitled to expect from their landlord. They will ensure that people feel safe and secure in their homes, can get problems fixed before they spiral out of control and see exactly how good their landlord is at dealing with complaints, ensuring their voice is being heard.

Working closely with the Regulator of Social Housing, a strong, proactive consumer regulatory regime will be enforced, strengthening the formal standards against which landlords are regulated and requiring them to be transparent about their performance and decision making, put things right when they go wrong and listening to tenants through effective engagement.

Outlined below are the key values that social housing residents should expect:

To be safe and secure in your home
To know how your landlord is performing, including on repairs, complaints and safety, and how it spends its money, so you can hold it to account.
To have your complaints dealt with promptly and fairly
To be treated with respect, backed by a strong consumer regulator and improved consumer standards for tenants.
To have your voice heard by your landlord
To have a good quality home and neighbourhood to live in, with your landlord keeping your home in good repair.
To be supported to take your first step to ownership

READ THE FULL REPORT

If you would like to know more on how CHIC can help your organisation meet the new landlord requirements, please get in touch at enquiries@chicltd.co.uk

Spending Review

The Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak presented his ‘Spending Review 2020’ to Parliament on Wednesday 25 November 2020, detailing the immediate priority to protect peoples lives and livelihoods as the country continues to battle the covid-19 outbreak.

This paper also promises specific spending to deliver stronger public services, deliver the next stages of its record investment plans in infrastructure to drive the UK’s recovery, investment into local infrastructure and communities and more.

Below we have summarised the key elements for the construction and housing sectors:

SR20 provides £254 million of additional funding to help end rough sleeping – a 60% cash increase compared to SR19
SR20 allocates £475 million to make public buildings greener, £150 million to help some of the poorest homes become more energy efficient and cheaper to heat with low-carbon energy, and a further £60 million to retrofit social housing.
It also extends the popular Green Homes Grant voucher scheme with £320 million of funding in 2021-22.
The government is committed to spending £3 billion on building decarbonisation.
SR20 confirms £122 million in 2021-22 to support creation of clean heat networks. This, together with the measures to be set out in the government’s forthcoming Heat and Buildings Strategy, will help meet the target of installing 600,000 heat pumps by 2028, and scale up the other low carbon heating and energy efficiency measures necessary to make buildings fit for net zero.
SR20 also enables local authorities to access over £1 billion of spending for social care, through £300 million of social care grant and the ability to levy a 3 per cent adult social care precept. This funding is additional to the £1 billion social care grant announced last year which is being maintained.

More funding for reducing tenants heating costs and helping the work towards carbon zero is welcomed. CHIC is working on a range of projects to support the decarbonisation of homes.

READ THE FULL REPORT

Investing in MMC – CHIC’s BuildSmart Service

The Welsh government has allocated £35m to social landlords and developers from its Innovative Housing Programme, which is focused on Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) and low-carbon housing.

12 social housing providers in Wales have been allocated funds to deliver 400 factory-built homes, produced by local Welsh companies and their supply chains, many of which having a strong focus on the zero-carbon agenda.

CHIC has been an advocate of the UK investing in creating greener offsite manufactured homes for the past few years. We have been involved in great developments and are now starting to see housing providers implementing MMC into their development programmes.

CHIC has a tried and tested route to market with three contracts for the manufacture, supply and erection of new modular (volumetric) homes, all also have options for all site works and turnkey contracts. We also have a long-term contract for a frame and panel offsite manufacturing solution. Also, now with our DPS solution, we can better cater to any of your specific newbuild requirements. For more information, please contact sdavey@chicltd.co.uk

How much will Decarbonisation cost?

A report published by Inside Housing gathered intelligence from 207 housing associations and stock-owning councils across the UK to reveal what the cost of decarbonisation looks like for the social housing sector.

Amongst the key findings from this report are:

The mean cost of decarbonisation per social home is £20,742, roughly equating to £104bn for total decarbonisation. 4% of this amount will be covered by the Decarbonisation Fund
8% of landlords surveyed are aiming to achieve net zero at an earlier date than the 2050 target set by government
More than a fifth of the social landlords that responded to the survey could provide an estimate of how much it would cost on average to reach net zero with their housing stock, with answers ranging from less than £3,000 per home to £50,000 per home.
The current average SAP rating of survey respondents was at 70.1
CHIC estimates that this level of investment equates to 45,000 jobs with 30 years of work for each. We need to train and invest in our workforce now,

“These findings are significant in showing the extent of change required by the social housing sector to achieve zero carbon. Adopting a fabric first approach, using more efficient heat sources and redeveloping when the cost of retrofitting exceeds its value are amongst things landlords will need to implement very soon. So, investment plans and programmes for existing homes need to change now for zero carbon to be achieved and for new homes the sector needs to embrace offsite manufacture at scale. In short, we need to become much more proactive if we are to meet our 2050 goals”

John Fisher, Managing Director, CHIC

News From The Supply Chain

ARK Consultancy Changing Lives at Christmas

CHIC’s managing agent ARK Consultancy has an important message and need your help!

This year the pandemic has put so many important events, socials and gatherings on hold for us all, both personally and professionally. Although we can’t be together in one place, and despite being spread around the country we have decided to challenge the ARK team to walk from Lands End to John O’Groats for the charity, Crisis in December.

We chose to raise money for Crisis because we wanted to select a housing charity and even though 'Everybody In' has been one of the significant beneficial outcomes of the pandemic, we know homelessness has not gone away and so we want to play a small part in helping Crisis do the great work that they do.

CHIC’s MD and his family are each aiming for 100 miles!

To donate to this cause, please use the link: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/arkconsultancy

M-AR New 100,000 sq ft Factory

M-AR, the off-site construction specialist which was recently appointed to one of CHIC’s £new MMC contracts, aims to increase and accelerate their ability to deliver the much-needed homes across the UK. Combined with their existing factory at Melton, M-AR’s production capacity will triple their output and will enable them to manufacture and deliver over 750 homes per annum, ramping up to 1,000 within 2 years. They have further plans and a roadmap to outgrow these facilities to expand further. 100 new jobs have been created to support this venture.

M-AR, is one of the 3 manufacturers of turn-key modular homes are available through CHIC’s BuildSmart services. For more information, please contact sdavey@chicltd.co.uk

CHIC CHAT

Dynamic Purchasing System

Procurement Policy Note

George Boyd

News From The Sector

News From The Supply Chain

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