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Click here to download the SOCIAL_HOUSING_CROSSWORD_PUZZLE.pdf

The future of social housing was prudently addressed, following a riveting conversation held by Theresa Mays former chief of staff Nick Timothy at one of our own board awaydays, back in January.

Many believe that social housing is nearing the bottom of the agenda when it comes to the implications of Brexit and is being heavily overlooked.

Arguable, the main issue that the social housing sector is going to face is the logistical changes to supply chains. With materials like timber being heavily imported from the EU, many merchants have already begun contingency planning to maintain their sustainability, and have adopted the approach of stockpiling materials; however, it’s a very temporary solution

The overcomplicating of importing materials is set to have some implications on the affordability of social homes, whether this is going to be for the good or bad of renters in the UK.

But the question is, does anyone know what they are doing? Planning for the unknown is an impossible feat in all walks of life, let alone when looking to mitigate the effects of Brexit on an entire industry.

The potential knock-on effects are endless with the immediate ones possibly the most damaging. Will we begin seeing more or less jobs in the construction industry? Half of construction workers in London come from the EU and many have already gone back to avoid being ‘stuck’.

The effects that deal or no deal Brexit could be endless from temporary purchasing alternative materials to a complete logistical change, steering away from current just in time solutions.

Going from a blanket agreement to, well, who knows what, is going to be a huge change regardless of the specifics and the social housing market is inevitably going to learn to adapt no matter what comes its way; Deal or No Deal is just the beginning of something bigger.

With every future deal coming from UK Parliament, surely our government will do what is best for UK citizens? It is no secret that the UK has been in a housing crisis for some time now with the publication of reports like the Shelter’s “vision for social housing”.

Although the UK is going Brexit crazy, there’s no need to panic. CHIC has been actively collaborating with its members / suppliers to gather intel on what is the best course of action to mitigate the amount of disruption to the supply chain. 95% of Manufacturers and Distributors have already plans in place to mitigate for a No deal vote with the large majority being determined as low risk. (Testimonial from a supplier)

CHIC has engaged with it’s supply chain to ensure that members have contingencies in place for every aspect of property maintenance requirements.

CHIC’s Merchant Services Manager (maybe change it to Supply chain manager) is of the opinion that: “The worst thing that we in the social housing industry can do right now, is to put our heads in the sand and hope that this storm will pass us by. The first thing that will be affected will be supply chains, as we see in other sectors such as the automotive industry. Arguably if housing associations engage with purchasing groups, in respect of their suppliers, trends will be noticeable which means that steps can be taken to mitigate negative effects.”

As rightly pointed out purchasing groups such as CHIC, are better positioned to notice trends in the market that individual housing associations cannot see, and this is purely down to the number of suppliers each engages. Having a pool of suppliers providing the same type of service, normally via a framework, will allow members that purchase through that group a better understanding of where the market is going.

In these trialling times, co-operation is key, and instead of we can do it better, we need to do it better together.

The question is then, what has your association done to ensure that services will not drop.

Quote from Bournville to come: - need to chase giles again today.

If you are worried about the Brexit impact on your organisation, please give us a call.

 

 

CHIC Procurement Activity

CHIC remains committed to meeting the evolving needs of our members and adapting to meet market demands by continuously introducing new and updating existing frameworks. This proactive approach ensures that we provide tailored solutions and stay aligned to industry demands, enhancing the value we offer to our stakeholders.

The CHIC Healthy Homes Framework has recently been awarded and we hosted a launch event on 11th April in Birmingham for all firms selected on the framework. Moderation is currently underway for the new CHIC Legal Services Framework, with an anticipated award and launch in June 2024.

Several other framework procurements are planned within the next 18 months, including Kitchen and Bathrooms (part of Planned Works (Phase 1), Fire Doors, Temporary Fire Alarms and Active Fire. If you would like further details about when these frameworks are to be published, please contact CHIC’s Head of Partnerships Mike Harris (mharris@chicltd.co.uk)

 

Procurement Act 2023: Ensuring Compliance and Knowledge

CHIC will be providing a ‘Countdown’ to the launch of the Act in October 2024. Here are the topics that will be published over the coming months:
• April - Impact for Suppliers/Contracting Authorities (Members)
• May - Transparency
• June - Performance
• July - Frameworks
• August - Direct Awards/Mini-Competitions
• September - Notices
• October – Launch of Act

The CHIC procurement team keeps up to date on legislative changes affecting Public Procurement, to ensure the delivery of knowledgeable and compliant solutions. Knowledge drop videos are now accessible for Suppliers and Contracting Authorities to acquaint themselves with the Procurement Act 2023. As well as informing the CHIC Procurement Team, these are also a great tool for our members and supply chain partners. They can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-official-transforming-public-procurement-knowledge-drops.

Online eLearning Modules are set to be released within in the next month for all Contracting Authorities, aiming to educate them about the upcoming changes in preparation for the Go-Live date of October 2024. The CHIC Procurement Team will be reviewing these new modules as they become available.

The learning and development team at the Government Commercial College has established a "Community of Practice (CoP)" for the Transforming Public Procurement (TPP) programme. This will serve as a platform for sharing, learning, and collaborating among procurement, commercial, and commissioning professionals affected by the new procurement regime in their public sector organisations. If you have any questions about the Procurement Act, please get in touch with Sam Domican, our Director of Procurement at sdomican@chicltd.co.uk

 

Ade Osunsanmi on the Procurement Act

Ade, CHIC’s Head of Procurement participated in the Sentry Doors Webinar around why sustainability and social value are important parts of the procurement process. She discussed the background of the refined objectives and procurement procedures, provided an update on contracting authority milestones and what suppliers can do to prepare for the upcoming changes.

She was joined by Guy Stapleford, Head of Consultancy Services at Procurement for Housing and Ahmed Loonat, Senior Business Development Manager at Sentry Doors.

If you would like to see a recording of the session you can do so here: https://wbm.streamgo.live/the-upcoming-procurement-act-why-sustainability-and-social-value-matter/live

 

In the fast paced market of supply chain management, efficiency is key. CHIC on behalf of our members, set out to improve supply chain management with the development of the CHIC Order Management System (COMS) back in 2022.

Ensuring best value on your energy contracts: the challenges facing housing associations

Inenco is one of the oldest energy consultancies in the UK and as a result has plenty of experience in helping organisations procure the best energy contracts.

 

Meeting the metering challenge

The often-quoted mantra is “what gets measured gets managed”, and this was in large part the government’s intent when mandating the rollout of smart meters (SMET) to support the achievement of Net Zero commitments and the management of a greener energy grid.

As of January 2022, all suppliers have binding annual installation targets to rollout to their remaining non-smart customers by the end of 2025.

Feedback from both suppliers and housing providers has highlighted a particular challenge in accelerating the rollout across the social housing estate. Gaining access to the buildings and areas where the meters are can be a challenge, having contact information for the people needed isn’t always available and co-ordinating the various teams that are involved can be time consuming. All of this means that energy suppliers are becoming more reluctant to contract with housing associations as their low SMET rollout impacts on the suppliers’ ability to hit their targets.

To achieve the best results takes time!