Building Better is looking for traditional contractors to join £800m framework
The National Housing Federation-backed alliance of housing associations and councils has mapped out plans to increase the use of modern methods of construction (MMC) in social housing.
At the beginning of this week, Procurement for Housing, a service provider dedicated to the social housing sector based in Scotland, teamed up with Building Better, an alliance of housing associations and councils, to develop a £800m framework that will help bolster the use of modern construction in social housing.
In order to work the framework, which is set to run for four years, is looking to appoint traditional contractors that are based in 10 different regions in England and Wales, who will ultimately lead on the project.
Known as the ‘Integrated Traditional Build & MMC Framework’, the project has been created in response to calls from social housing providers for a compliant way of involving trusted, local construction firms on MMC projects, where elements of traditional construction are still required.
News of this new framework has come amidst government debates on whether Awaab’s Law should be extended to the private housing sector as the quality of homes in the UK has declined. According to a report that was released in 2023, one in six young adults in the UK are forced to live in poor-quality housing.
Whilst building on their new scheme, Procurement for Housing and Building Better have spoken to SME building firms across England, gathering feedback on how an agreement could work to the best of its ability. Both organisations are looking for ways to make the procurement process more straightforward and to develop the most effective contracting environment.
Tony Woods, technical manager for construction & sustainability at Procurement for Housing said: ‘We’ve been talking to traditional contractors to find out how they’d want to work on MMC schemes and, interestingly, many of their requests are the same as those from offsite manufacturers.
‘Both want to be engaged early in the process, before set designs are in place. Both want a more transparent way of working with wider use of ‘pain and gain’ agreements and a simpler, more collaborative contracting environment. This feedback is now being used to design our integrated framework.’
The framework will cover the construction of housing, apartments, and extra care homes and there will be a regional lot structure. A contract notice will be issued in March 2024, with successful bidders appointed in the summer.
‘Increasingly, our members want a blend of different construction methods on their MMC projects,’ Trina Chakravarti, director of Building Better said. ‘Traditional SME construction firms have a huge amount of expertise, and we’re keen to harness this through the framework.’
Chakravarti added: ‘Using a collaborative approach means that manufacturers can concentrate on delivering their product, traditional firms can take control of the building process and we can offer housing associations and councils a wide range of construction solutions.’
Image: Building Better
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