Appendix 1 of this report is exempt by virtue of paragraph 3 of the Access to Information Procedure Rules set out in the Constitution pursuant to Schedule 12A Local Government Act 1972, as amended in that they contain information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information). The public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Cabinet:

a)     Approvedin principle the procurement of a two stage tender to replace the rainscreen cladding,AOVs, windows and roofing and install sprinklers and LD1 fire alarms at Highfield Towers comprising Pre-Construction Services (Stage 1) and Works (Stage 2) utilising the LHC – Fire Safety (FS2) Lot 7A framework with a combined indicative value of £7.5Million. 

b)     Approved a waiver of the Council’s default evaluation criteria of 70% Price: 30% Quality and instead award the contracts on the MEAT basis of a 60% Quality, 30% Price, and 10% Social Value weighting for the reasons set out in Section 7 of this report, Procurement Route. 

c)     Delegated the approval of the award of the Pre-Construction Services Agreement (Stage 1) and the works contract (Stage 2) to the Strategic Director of Place, acting in consultation with the Strategic Director of Resources and the Deputy Director of Legal & Governance. 

d)     Delegated the change of procurement route from a framework to a Dynamic Procurement system (DPS), if required, to the Strategic Director of Place. 

Report Title: Highfield Towers Phase 1 - Renewal of Cladding 

Presented by: Councillor Paul McGeary - Lead Member for Housing & Property 

Summary:

This report seeks authorisation to tender on a two-stage basis, for the renewal of the rainscreen cladding at Highfield Towers. 

The indicative project budget is £7.5m.  Provision has been made within the HRA capital programme. 

The report includes an exempt appendixcontaining Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information). 

1.     The Building Safety Act 2022 required the Council to register its tower blocks, defined as Higher Risk Building or HRBs, with the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) and to compile a Building Safety Case for each building.  The Building Safety Cases include various surveys and reports, some of which recommend works to address maintenance issues or improve the building.  The Council needs to undertake works to the cladding at Highfield Towers as stated in itsBuilding Safety Case.   

2.     Whilst the cladding works are being undertaken we will also include window, Automatic Opening Vent (AOV) and roofing replacement as together these form the external building envelope and have an interface with the cladding.  This will also ensure economies of scale in terms of scaffolding/external access.  They are also life-expired and combining the works will make economic use of expensive scaffolding.   

3.     In addition, the works will include the installation of sprinklers and LD1 fire alarms (the alarm standard for maximum life protection for a domestic property) to deliver a new, aspirational, fire strategy for the building. On completion of the works Highfield Towers will have an improved level of fire safety. 

4.     The works to the building’s external envelope will improve the building’s thermal properties, thus helping reduce heating bills and CO2 emissions. 

5.     The works are complex and multi-faceted, so it is proposed to procure themon the basis of a two-stage tender process.  This will enable the contractor to be engaged early (Stage 1) and be involved in the development of designs, specifications, resident consultation and programming of the works before actually undertaking the works (Stage 2).  The procurement team have advisedtendering the works through a suitable public sector framework (the LHC framework) to ensure only suitably experienced, pre-vetted contractors are invited to tender in a legally compliant manner.  It is proposed to use the LHC’s tender portal for speed and efficiency. 

6.     Tenders for the works will be assessed on a 30/70 price/quality basis as the work includes specialist professional advice on the cladding and other fire safety works at design stage (Stage 1) and, in addition, the works themselves (Stage 2) are highly specialist in nature. Selecting the right contractor is therefore of the utmost importance. This is a deviation away from the 70/30 price/quality split stated in rule 18.4 of the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules (CPRs) and therefore approval of the proposals contained in this report will constitute a waiver under rule 14.1 of the CPRs. 

7.     There will be a contractual obligation to deliver the works to specific quality standards. The contractor will also be required to deliver specific social value requirements that align with Havering’s social value priorities. The Resident Engagement Team and Resident Liaison Team will be heavily involved in this aspect of the project and the Home Ownership team will deal with leaseholder consultation. 

8.     The Pre-Construction Services (Stage 1) and the works (Stage 2) have a combined indicative value of £7.5M.  In addition to these costs there will be associated costs relating to specialist consultancy. 

9.     The works will need building regulations approval from the Building Safety Regulator prior to commencement and the selected contractor will need to be able to act as Building Regulations Principal Designer and Building Regulations Principal Contractor. 

Cabinet:

a)     Approvedin principle the procurement of a two stage tender to replace the rainscreen cladding,AOVs, windows and roofing and install sprinklers and LD1 fire alarms at Highfield Towers comprising Pre-Construction Services (Stage 1) and Works (Stage 2) utilising the LHC – Fire Safety (FS2) Lot 7A framework with a combined indicative value of £7.5Million. 

b)     Approved a waiver of the Council’s default evaluation criteria of 70% Price: 30% Quality and instead award the contracts on the MEAT basis of a 60% Quality, 30% Price, and 10% Social Value weighting for the reasons set out in Section 7 of this report, Procurement Route. 

c)     Delegated the approval of the award of the Pre-Construction Services Agreement (Stage 1) and the works contract (Stage 2) to the Strategic Director of Place, acting in consultation with the Strategic Director of Resources and the Deputy Director of Legal & Governance. 

d)     Delegated the change of procurement route from a framework to a Dynamic Procurement system (DPS), if required, to the Strategic Director of Place.