£500m project aims to build 10,000 affordable new homes across the city over the next few years and ‘revolutionise’ the rent-to-buy sector and drive up council tax receipts. Tony McDonough reports

Local firms are to be give the opportunity to pitch for work with Liverpool City Council’s new ‘ethical’ housing company, Foundations.

The £500m project aims to build 10,000 affordable new homes across the city over the next few years and “revolutionise” the rent-to-buy sector and drive up council tax receipts.

In May the city council said it had identified a site in North Liverpool that was suitable for the construction of the first 120 homes.

New frameworks

Now Foundations has announced it will launch house refurbishment and housebuilding procurement frameworks  and give local firms the opportunity to pitch for work.

The new frameworks will be designed specifically to enable Liverpool and Merseyside-based businesses to pitch for work as part of the derelict refurbishment and new build programmes, bolstering the local supply chain.

The council’s procurement team have taken the first step to launch the new frameworks by publishing a soft market testing exercise with a questionnaire for contractors. Click here for more details and to register an interest.

Housing mix

Mayor Joe Anderson said: “Foundations has the potential to be absolutely transformational in so many ways, such as by creating the right housing mix that the city needs and generating new council tax income which we can reinvest in services.

“But crucially it is also vital that as part of the construction programme that we give as many local businesses as possible the chance to bid for work from Foundations.

“We’ve already got a good track record of doing that with our schools investment programme, with 74% of the spending going to Merseyside firms helping create 2,000 jobs and 200 apprenticeships – and we want to replicate that with Foundations.”  

Fine tune

The sector has until September 14 to reply, after which feedback will be collated and then used to fine tune the framework before its official launch at the end of September 2018.

Chair of Foundations, Frank Hont, added: “The sheer scale of the work that Foundations will be doing over the next few years offers a tremendous opportunity to local firms, ranging from the supply of materials or fitting out properties.

“The procurement framework aims to recycle as much of the spending as possible locally through the city region economy, into the coffers of local businesses and ultimately the pockets of local workers, benefiting households across the city region.”