The City of Edinburgh’s Council’s New Build Housing Framework aims to efficiently procure the construction of up to 25,000 homes. The £600m framework is split into two lots, with the first, £350m, lot split into three sub-lots, based on the size of prospective sites: one to 30 homes; 31 to 100 homes; and more than 100 homes. This structure was designed to support bids by SMEs, rather than relying on a few big contractors.
Contractors were based on quality (70% of the scoring) and cost (30%). They were also asked to commit to the council’s real living wage scheme, for both staff and sub-contractors. In sub-lot 1, for the smallest sites, winners were Fleming Buildings, A S Homes, and Campion Homes; in sub-lot 2, CCG, McTaggart ԭ, Cruden Investments; and Robertson Group; in sub-lot 3, CCG, Cruden, Ogilvie ԭ, and McTaggart.
Evaluations on price were made by an external cost consultant, Arcadis; quality assessments were made by members of the council’s development and regeneration team.
Housing, homelessness, and fair work convenor, Councillor Tim Pogson, said, “We’re fully committed to addressing the housing emergency in Edinburgh, pledging a record £1.6bn to housebuilding in this year’s budget, helping to realise our ambition to build 25,000 new affordable homes across the city.
“Procuring the right contractors to deliver these homes can take time, so I’m pleased that Lot 1 of the New Build Housing Framework Agreement is now in place, helping to streamline the process and letting us tackle the issue at pace.
“Our procurement service’s innovative approach to the framework has opened opportunities to a broader range of contractors, including SMEs, increasing capacity for house building projects.”