Wates Living Space will transform the former Guest Hospital in Dudley into 218 private and affordable homes, built to Level 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes.

While Guest Hospital is the first HCA-wned scheme with a preferred developer appointed through the Panel, there are many more projects in the pipeline, at various stages of the competition process.

The panel of house builders and contractors was set to streamline development on publicly-owned land. It is is divided into northern, central and southern clusters to provide full national coverage and will operate until January 2013.

In the first 8 months of operation, 14,500 homes have already been identified to be delivered by partners procured through the panel.

Steve Carr, head of new business and economics at theHCA, said: “The Delivery Partner Panel has been extremely successful so far, helping to ensure the whole procurement process is more efficient and cost effective for both the HCA and other organisations using the panel.

“We have received extremely positive feedback and with the procurement process being fast-tracked, public sector organisations are able to make substantial project cost savings by choosing to select developers through the panel rather than follow a traditional procurement route.”

So far, around 8,500 new homes have been identified for construction on HCA-owned sites using the DPP.

Third party organisations such as local authorities and other public land owners are also using the DPP to procure partners.

The City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council recently became the first third party organisation to select a delivery partner through the panel, appointing Lovell as preferred developer for their site at Longfield Drive in Bradford.

Around 6,000 new and affordable homes have already been identified for construction on non-HCA owned public sector land, by organisations using the DPP.

So far over 35 public sector organisations have signed an agreement with the HCA to procure partners for their own sites, ranging from small projects of around 20 homes to large renewal schemes that require a mix of expertise.