Homes England picks consultants for £40 million framework

15 UK consultancies have won places on the Homes England consultancy framework. Over the next four years, the firms will vie among each other for £40 million of contracts, relating to economic modelling and analysis work.

Homes England is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government. Described on the organisation’s website as the government’s “housing accelerator,” the entity hopes that by releasing more land to developers, it is “making possible the new homes England needs, helping to improve neighbourhoods and grow communities.”

With an on-going housing crisis making the property sector in the UK unaffordable for many, homeownership among 25-33 year-olds has halved in the past 20 years. At the same time, the British construction sector endured a tumultuous period in light of Brexit pressures, and an economy plagued by sluggish productivity. In this context, Homes England has announced a framework agreement with 15 consultancies to help it boost delivery of homes in the coming years.

Frameworks are “umbrella agreements,” setting out the terms – particularly relating to price, quality and quantity – under which individual contracts can be awarded throughout the period of the agreement. They are typically used when the buyer identifies a need for specific products or services but are unsure of the scope or time-frame. In this case, the £40 million agreement lasts until 2025.

Under the deal, known as the Homes England development monitoring and management services framework, the consultants will be asked to provide a range of services. These include strategic economic research, advice and modelling, economic appraisal and associated research and analysis.

Several of the firms to claim places on the latest deal are already on another £100 million Homes England framework that was awarded two years ago – with WSP, Arcadis, Aecom and Turner & Townsend among 20 firms to win places on the earlier deal that includes project and cost management, engineering design and architecture and landscape design, and lasts until 2023.

The selected firms

The full list of firms on the Homes England development monitoring and management services framework 2021-2025:

Aecom
Arcadis
Avison Young
Calfordseaden
Cushman & Wakefield
McBains
Rg + p
Rider Levett Bucknall
Savills
Stace
Tetra Tech
Turner & Townsend
Ward Williams Associates
Welling Partnership Property & Construction Consultants
WSP