Issue - meetings

Report of Acting Director for Neighbourhood Services

Having previously declared an interest, Councillor Webster left the room prior to discussion of this item.

Due to the absence of Councillor Webster, Councillor Barnard (Vice-Chair) took the chair for this item.

Ken France, Acting Head of Facilities and Building Services, presented the report, detailing Building Services and Facilities Management procurement requirements for the financial year 2022/23 for planned and reactive maintenance and minor works.

He stated that the Council had a statutory duty to be compliant with all applicable asset legislation in relation to its asset portfolio and this duty was met by carrying out planned, reactive and minor works on its asset portfolio. Whilst works were performed in-house wherever possible, there were occasions where specialist contractors or additional resource was required.

Therefore, Building Services and Facilities Management needed to award several framework agreements and contracts, in conjunction with the council’s procurement team, to the value of £32.52million, as detailed in appendix 1. This total included £1.6million of the planned maintenance budget being spent through internal services and Nottingham City Homes.

In response to a question regarding whether Nottingham City Homes (NCH) undertook the work themselves or outsourced it (which the Council could outsource themselves, rather than paying NCH to do so), Mr France stated that all contractors charge a management uplift, irrespective of whether NCC outsource the work or NCH outsource the work, however, there is currently work underway to assess whether Frameworks can be set up going forwards to meet all our technical disciplines, although it would be dependent on the nature of the work and any ‘specialisms’. There would also be a management uplift on any framework set up moving forward.

Resolved

(1)  to approve procurement of contracts over a 4-year period (2022-26) to a maximum value of £32.52million, in line with the annual procurement plan as detailed in appendix 1;

(2)  to approve the proposed expenditure of at least £1.6million of the £3million planned maintenance budget for 2022/23 on services delivered either through in-house provision or Nottingham City Homes;

(3)  to delegate authority to the Acting Director for Residents Services to award the contracts and approve all call-off arrangements under the contracts.

Reasons for recommendations

There are a number of contracts which the Building Services and Facilities Management department use coming to the end of their term in March 2022. The contracts set out in the appendix require re-procurement to enable Building Services to keep the Council’s asset portfolio compliant with regulatory, legislative and insurance obligations. Through the proposed procurement routes the Council can continue to improve efficiency and service of supplier delivery across multiple high-risk work streams and improve value for money for Directorates across the Council.  Our annual procurement programme has been proven the best approach to securing a competent supply chain with the lowest costs possible.

This report details how orders are placed with Contractors through the Council’s robust systems. To ensure a smooth and timely process for placing orders it is recommended that the Director for Neighbourhood Services has delegated  ...  view the full minutes text for item 52