Domestic Energy Efficiency Delivery Partner Framework - Warmer Homes Consortium

Portsmouth City Council - the 'council' - will be undertaking a procurement process over spring / summer 2022 to establish a framework agreement for the delivery of domestic energy efficiency measures. The council is seeking to work with a primary provider who will manage funds on behalf of the council for the allocation of funding and delivery of energy efficiency works related to funding streams made available by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Such funding streams are likely to include for, but not be limited to, the following schemes: • Local Authority Delivery (LAD) • Home Upgrade Grant (HUG) • Social Housing Decarbonisation Funding (SHDF) • Warm Homes Funding (WHF). The broad scope of activities which are envisaged to be covered by the framework agreement is summarised within Section II.2.4 below. The council leads a group of 21 partner local authorities under the banner of the Warmer Homes Consortium (WHC). WHC membership is open to any Local Authority or Registered Provider located within the South West, South East, London and East of England. The current WHC members are listed within Section II.2.3. Whilst the framework will be used for delivery of efficiency measures across the geographical areas covered by the participating WHC members, the work will be managed through the council who will be the sole party to the agreement and resulting call off contracts. The council is targeting award of the framework agreement by August 2022. Once in place the agreement will run for a duration of 4 years. Estimates for spend across the term of the agreement are: • Direct consideration to framework providers(s): £5M - £20M • Associated total expenditure of grant monies for energy efficiency works: £50M - £200M Expenditure via the framework will be dependent upon the securing of future funding and uptake by WHC members. No guarantees can be made in respect of the value estimates stated which may be significantly exceeded should significant additional related funding streams and / or further WHC participation be secured over the term of the agreement.
Whilst the council is seeking to work with a single primary provider, 3-4 overall providers will be appointed onto the framework agreement. The top ranked provider will act as the primary delivery partner provider with call off contracts generally let via direct award with the remaining providers held in contingency in case of any significant performance issues. In addition the council may also opt to invite all providers to submit mini-competition proposals for project commissions which may require the development of alternative delivery models, access to specialist resources, etc. The council will run the procurement process to establish the framework agreement in accordance with the Open Procedure as defined within the Public Contracts Regulations (2015) in accordance with the following indicative target programme: • Issue FTS PIN Notice - 19.04.22. • Deadline for market testing PIN responses - 06.05.22 12:00 • Issue FTS Contract Notice - 16.05.22 • Tender return deadline - 17.06.22 • Notification of award decision - 11.07.22 • Framework commencement - 1st August 2022 The council has issued a Proof of Concept document via its e-sourcing solution InTend which interested providers are encouraged to access for further information. The InTend system can be accessed free of charge via the following web address: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/portsmouthcc/aspx/Home Whilst not a compulsory requirement for participation in the forthcoming procurement process, interested providers are encouraged to complete the accompanying soft market testing questionnaire and return it via InTend, ideally by no later than Friday 6th May 2022 12:00. Any responses returned after this date and time will not be set aside but may not be subject to detailed review by the council prior to issue of the tender pack which is targeted for Monday 16th May 2022.