The North West Construction Hub is a move away from lowest price tendering, replacing this with long term, collaborative relationships between clients, professionals and contractors, formed around shared objectives and common values. The result is less waste, less duplication, local engagement and greater efficiencies which give better value for money.
Cruden are delighted to be a partner contractor on both the low value and medium value frameworks operating across the North West. A number of our delivery team attended the informative events held in June 2011.
The North West Construction Hub has recently concluded five regional procurement information events throughout June 2011. These events took place in Lancashire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Cumbria and Cheshire. Each event was well attended from a wide spectrum of the public sectors including, Local Authorities, Housing, Health, Education and the Emergency Services. In addition, representatives from all 25 contractor partners from the high, medium and low value frameworks were present.
John Lorimer, NWCH Board Chair explained: "These events have been a huge success in communicating the benefits of using the North West Construction Hub and discussing the importance of localism.
It is also a great achievement that the NWCH attracted representation from the OGC who also presented a section on the new Government Construction Strategy at the Greater Manchester event."
The NWCH can boast that since the framework's establishments throughout 2010/11 there are already over £200m of construction works that have been procured through them. John Lorimer explained "The NWCH is flexible to meet the needs of the clients it works with and client feedback has been extremely positive. It is an achievement that some of our clients provided endorsement at the events, many offering to present the section on how the NWCH addresses localism."
The frameworks eliminate the need for a costly procurement exercise for individual projects whilst providing benefits including cost savings for authorities, reductions in contract time, improved quality of work and the ability to deliver added value objectives, such as training opportunities and apprenticeships, which are not obtainable through traditional procurement methods. All public sector organisations in the North West of England can use the NWCH with over 200 listed in the OJEU. With three construction framework models 8 for low, medium or high value projects 8 the OJEU8 compliant appointment process is quick, straightforward and flexible.
For further information regarding the North West Construction Hub, please contact Joanna Chomeniuk, NWCH Administrative Officer on 0161 219 6213 or via email: j.chomeniuk@manchester.gov.uk