Decision details

LOCATA Housing Services - Direct Contract Award

Decision Maker: Head of Housing and Health

Decision status: Recommendations Approved

Is Key decision?: No

Is subject to call in?: No

Purpose:

The Council has a contract with LOCATA Housing Services for the provision of a Housing Register, Choice Based Letting and Homeless Service. The current contract was awarded following a procurement exercise with 4 other local Authorities as part of the Herts and Essex Housing Consortium (HEHOC). The current contract expires in January 2026 with no further extensions permitted. The Consortium has considered options for the future provision of these services and has considered with the support of the Chelmsford Procurement Team the early termination of the current contract with LOCATA Housing Services and the re-procurement of the same services, under the HEHOC Consortium umbrella, of a further 3 year contract with LOCATA Housing Services as a direct award from the Crown Commissions Gcloud13 Framework, which has been already been market tested. The Contract start date has been agreed with the Consortium as 14th October 2024, with each local authority having their individual contracts with LHS but still acting under the Consortium to benefit from an economies of scale. The Crown Commissioned Framework is due to be reissued shortly and Gcloud 14 shows a 20% cost uplift on Services provided under the revised Framework.

This decision can be made by the Head of Housing and Health under authority delegated within the council's Constitution at 10.6.1.2(b) regarding Powers in relation to Contracts and Property and officers Responsibility for Functions delegated to the Heads of Service, specifically, under paragraph 10.16.4: To maintain registers and records of those in housing need requiring social or affordable housing and nominate applicants to properties owned by Registered Providers (RPs).


Decision:

Make a direct award, under the Herts and Essex Housing Consortium to LOCATA Housing Services under GCloud 13.

Alternative options considered:

Option 1 - Continue with current contract and re-procure at the end of the contract period and undertake a full tender exercise. This option is not recommended. The current contract has only one further year extension permitted and then the Council's will need to re-procure and undertake a full tender process. This will take significant officer time and is exposing the council to at least a 20% uplift in the cost of the services.
Option 2 - Make a direct award under CC GCloud 13 under the umbrella of the Herts and Essex Consortium - Recommended decision. The cost of current contract with LHS is £22,733.33 per annum for East Herts District Council under the HEHOC umbrella. Under GCloud 13 the annual contract costs, if the council remains under the Consortium umbrella will be £22,200, and if the council procures outside of the Consortium it will be £28,900. If the Council re-procures under the next GCloud 14 Framework, due to be published in November 2024, the annual contract costs under the Consortium for East Herts increase to £27,250.00, or £38,500 outside of the Consortium.

Publication date: 22/10/2024

Date of decision: 11/10/2024