The new building framework has been carved up into four value bands and covers Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Lancashire and Cumbria.

Five contractors have secured places on the major works panel. These are BAM Construction, Laing O’Rourke, McLaren Construction, Morgan Sindall and Willmott Dixon.

The Liverpool-based private procurement group promises a work pipeline of up to £2bn  over the next four years, targeting education, blue light, council and health care building projects.

Framework partners were measured around 10 KPIs, which included safety, fair payment, and their ability to deliver to programme and budget in both pre-construction and construction phases.

Robbie Blackhurst, Managing Director of Procure North West Framework, said:  “In total we received over 70 bids across the four value banded lots. The 20 successful contractor partners have a demonstrable track record of delivering public sector projects across the North West Region.

“When we built the Procure North West Framework the key driver was to establish an OJEU compliant framework that captured all of the pockets of best practice from other framework procurement routes and pull them under one umbrella.

“This has enabled us to develop a procurement tool for the public sector that is not only effective and efficient but also offers clients a degree of flexibility while providing demonstrable value for money.

“Having the contractor partners on board was the last missing piece of the jigsaw and we are delighted that the framework is now live and can start to support the public sector deliver their capital projects.”