Great Places names 103 suppliers to £1.5bn framework

The housing group has announced successful bidders for its latest four-year Innovation Chain North framework of contractors and consultants.

The framework has been designed to support delivery of new homes across the North of England, not only to support Great Places’ affordable development programme but also other housing associations and local authorities.

A not-for-profit organisation, Great Places owns more than 25,000 affordable homes in more than 30 local authority areas across the North West and South Yorkshire. In 2023/24 Great Places delivered 490 new affordable homes and sold 214 homes for shared ownership.

The whole of Yorkshire is covered across the various lots.

The framework renewal saw a 23% increase in bidders seeking to deliver works and services; with 206 companies applying to supply the framework.

Most bidders applied for multiple lots, and in total 802 bids were evaluated across the 37 lots. New lots for the renewed framework include apartment construction, M&E engineering and retrofit consultants.

In total 103 suppliers – 34 contractors and 69 consultants – were successful. The successful organisations were selected based on their technical competence, price, and their commitment to social value.

The new £1.5bn framework will run until June 2028.

Social value continues to be a key differentiator, with firms making a range of pledges covering areas such as apprenticeships, work experience opportunities and volunteering hours. The suppliers on the previous four-year framework are set to deliver more than £20m in added social value.

Joanne Whitehead, Great Places’ development performance manager, is responsible for managing the framework.

She said: “Ahead of our latest tender, we consulted with colleagues across the sector, existing contractors, and consultants, as well as drawing learning from managing the last framework to design a new framework which is fit for purpose as we move forward with our collective ambitions.

“We were delighted with the response from the market and received a large number of high-quality submissions and substantial social value pledges for our communities.

“The new framework will continue to ensure Great Places and our peer organisations have tried and tested partners to help us to deliver our extensive development programmes and to help our collective ambitions to tackle the housing crisis.”

The full list of successful bidders can be accessed here.