EC Harris picks up major NCA commission

EC Harris wins National Change Agent commission to provide consultancy services for an award-winning affordable housing consortium in the South West.

International consultancy EC Harris is celebrating after winning a National Change Agent (NCA) commission to provide consultancy services for an award-winning affordable housing consortium in the South West.

The firm will develop a procurement business plan for Advantage South West (ASW), which recently won a Housing Corporation Gold Award for Excellence in the use of modern methods of construction (MMC) to deliver affordable homes.

Rebecca Bennett Casserly for EC Harris, said: "This is excellent news for EC Harris and comes as a result of our affordable housing activity in the south west, and the unrivalled expertise of our Exeter-based team".

"We are particularly excited as this win means we are now acting for both Procurement Gold Award holders, the other being Fusion21, who are already clients of ours".

"Advantage South West was set up two years ago by South Somerset Homes, Ocean Housing Group, North Devon Homes and Devon and Cornwall Housing to provide factory built timber frame homes that can be erected on site in half the time it takes using traditional construction methods".

"These are provided by two manufacturers, Frame Homes and Advanced Panel Systems, who have a joint capacity to deliver up to 3,000 affordable homes a year".

"ASW partners have been joined by six other local housing associations - Coastline Housing, Penwith Housing Association, Riviera Housing Trust, Teign Housing, Tor Homes and Westcountry Housing Association - in order to develop a procurement consortium".

"Owning 44,000 homes across Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, the consortium will be spending more than £86m over the next 5 years on capital works programmes".

David Renwick, Chair of ASW, said: "Having successfully worked together to procure new homes built using modern methods of construction, it makes sound business sense for members of the partnership to explore other forms of collaborative working.

By pooling our combined capital works budgets we should be able to secure considerable economies of scale.

The expertise that E C Harris bring to the equation will be crucial in helping us to achieve our goals".

"The success of the consortium to date has been based on the local knowledge and expertise of the individual housing associations involved".

"Our future success will be based on continual growth and tapping into the skills of other RSLs in the region who may wish to join us and I would welcome the opportunity to discuss with local social housing landlords considering joining our consortium".

In December last year, EC Harris gained accreditation to provide services to NCA Housing, the National Change Agent for social housing capital works on behalf of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minster.

NCA Housing gives support and advice to social landlords wishing to establish effective procurement consortias to improve the procurement and delivery efficiencies of capital works programmes.

The role with NCA Housing means EC Harris supports consortia at any stage from business planning through procurement, delivery of the programme and the realisation of significant financial savings.

NCA Housing provides access to the fund to support expenditure on consulting and other efficiency improvement measures in the affordable housing sector.

Any social housing landlords interested in joining the Advantage South West housing consortium, should contact David Renwick, Chair of ASW, on 01726 874463.

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