Smarte East Alliance, a partnership of Essex, Hertfordshire and Suffolk County Councils, is renewing its framework partners after several years working with seven contractors.
The alliance expects to spend somewhere between £200m and £500m over the course of the agreement. Future Government spending cuts could curtail the councils’ full plans.
Ninety percent of the first framework jobs consisted of school building and refurbishment.
Smarte East expects a wider spread of work this time round, covering librairies, nurseries, emergency services building, council offices and recycling facilities.
Existing Smarte framework
- Band 1 (£150k-£500K): Ashe; Borras; Grehans; Lakehouse; Rok
- Band 2 (£350k-£2m): Ashe; Lakehouse; May Gurney: Rok
- Band 3 (£1.75m plus): May Gurney; Willmott Dixon
- Project management services: Mace
The latest framework will also be packaged up in three tiers covering work from £100k to £500k; £500k -£2.5m and £2.5m plus.
This time the alliance hopes to raise competition with four contractors working in each tier. They will then bid through mini competitions for parceled up work, weighted 70% on price and 30% on quality.
Successful firms will be expected to work under partnering principles and early contractor involvement.
Detailed invitations will be sent out to prequalified firms in August.