Issue details

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).