Decision Maker: Head of Housing and Health
Decision status: Recommendations Approved
Is Key decision?: No
Is subject to call in?: No
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).
Make a direct award, under the Herts and Essex
Housing Consortium to LOCATA Housing Services under GCloud
13.
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