By Akanimo Sampson
Government’s housing delivery agency, Homes England, is simplifying how it chooses house builders and contractors to bring its land to market.
Construction Enquirer reports that fFirms are today being invited to bid for its new Delivery Partner Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS), marking a significant shift from the agency’s four-year Delivery Partner Panel system.
House builders and contractors will now be able to join the agency’s list of preferred developers whenever they choose.
Just under 70 firms presently hold places on the panel, split across five regions in England and excluding London.
The present panel includes most of the major house builders including several national contractors like Kier, Laing O’Rourke, Mace, Wates and regionals like Esh,Eric Wright and Spellar Metcalfe.
This new dynamic and land led approach will open Homes England sites up more widely to the whole market and be more flexible to accommodate market changes.
The Delivery Partner DPS will also be available to Homes England’s public sector partners to help them procure a developer or contractor to build homes on sites they own.
Stephen Kinsella, Chief Land and Development Officer at Homes England, said: “This new digital system marks a huge step forward, making it much easier for developers to bid for our land.
“I’d encourage our current partners, as well as those we haven’t worked with before, to get their applications in so we can work together to create great places to live.
“We are one of the largest vendors of residential land with sites for tens of thousands of homes being disposed over the next three years being channeled through this new approach.”
The application process will also take the size of the developer into account.
For example, SMEs bidding to deliver smaller sites will benefit from simpler entry criteria whereas the entry criteria for developers bidding to deliver larger strategic sites will be proportionately more testing.
Larger developers will be expected to demonstrate leadership around issues such as design quality, building safety and improving equality and diversity in the industry.
This initial application phase will run from 24 May to 25 June with the line-up of new partners due to be revealed on 1 September 2021.Applications will then re-open on an ongoing basis enabling new market entrants to join at any time.
