The housing association has picked a 13-strong contractor pool to deliver major schemes over £20m.

Laing O’Rourke has secured a place on the major projects panel alongside a dozen other familiar housing contractors operating in London and the Home Counties.

Keepmoat and Henry Construction will also join the major schemes panel for the first time while Countryside, Allenbuild and Kier have dropped off the preferred list this time round

The framework has also opened the door to several smaller players with a lot covering projects worth up to £5m.

Network Homes is one of just seven housing associations in the country with ‘trusted partner’ status for development from the Government’s Homes and Communities Agency.

It manages over 20,000 homes, in 36 local authority areas, mainly in London and the Home Counties and aims to start around 1,000 new homes a year for sale and rent.

The new framework will run until the end of 2020.

The housing association has just purchased 0.66 hectares of land in Southall, Ealing, to create a £200m regeneration scheme of 500 homes plus substantial commercial space.

Subject to planning work will start on site in spring 2018 with phased handovers of properties between 2020 and 2022.