Watford Community Housing has highlighted its commitment to building much-needed homes by establishing a framework for contractors, consultants and other roles in the development process.
The framework allows the organisation to reinforce and streamline processes and ensure value for money across an ambitious programme to develop 1,000 new homes by 2020. Working with echelon Consultancy, Watford Community Housing has created a development framework comprising architects, principal designers, transport and highways planning, employers’ agents and contractors, enabling it to enhance monitoring and management of the quality of its developments. The framework, which will be managed by Pretium Frameworks Ltd, also allows the organisation to simplify processes, become more efficient and better ensure regulatory compliance.
After a rigorous, two-tier evaluation process, applicants were ranked on a number of factors and those with the highest scores accepted onto the framework. Watford Community Housing’s current development goal — to have built 1,000 new homes before 2020 — requires efficient, high-quality partnerships, which the framework will provide.
To mark the formal launch of the framework, Watford Community Housing recently hosted a meeting of all stakeholders, where the details of the framework and its processes were shared with successful bidders and other local partners who may be interested in making use of the framework. The event was also a chance for the organisation to share its current pipeline of schemes and information about how other organisations will be able to access the framework.
The framework has already generated some interest outside of the organisation. During the evaluation process, two of Watford Community Housing’s partners expressed a desire to begin utilising the framework for their own decision-making, an agreement which will be finalised now the framework has officially launched.
Gareth Lewis, Group Director of Partnerships for Watford Community Housing, said: “I’m very pleased to be able to announce our new development framework. By working closely with organisations that share our values and stand as experts in their field, we can become even more successful in developing much-needed affordable housing for our local community and beyond.”
Mathew Baxter, MD of echelon Consultancy and Pretium Frameworks, added: “we are delighted to be managing the Framework and look forward to moving onto the next stage of the process delivering much needed homes.”
