Key takeaways - Delivering affordable housing through Joint Ventures and Partnerships with the private sector

Joanna Bouloux and Kris Kelliher were joined by Saheeda Bowmer of 31ten Consulting at a recent session on the growth of joint ventures and considerations coming from the upcoming procurement regulation changes. We are seeing a rapid growth in the use of joint ventures as the benefits are becoming a significant consideration to enable delivery of a variety of housing and infrastructure projects.

A number of key takeaways from the session:

• The benefit of identifying objectives and factoring in all considerations to identify the best delivery solution for your project.
• Consider whether the public procurement route is necessary; take account of level of control required and whether that could be positive or negative. Procurement is an essential consideration. However, the risk of misapplication can have significant impacts on the selection of the correct party and delivery of projects. 
• For a public procurement process map the route and timeline factoring in competitive dialogue/negotiation processes – this helps to ensure that all parties have a clear idea of expectations. Also, listen to feedback from bidders and seek to ensure there is appropriate time for relevant bids to be submitted. 
• If setting up LLP arrangements identify early those reserved matters requiring member approval and how the members may resolve deadlock.
• Keep in mind the new Procurement Act and new notification and publication requirements relating to the agreement and performance against KPIs.

In addition to this session our team have been engaging in a number of events discussing the benefits of collaboration:

Jonathan Corris (Head of Real Estate and Projects) recently spoke at the Housing Forum on the benefits of collaboration and partnering in order to tackle not only the delivery of new housing but also the options in relation to the retrofit and energy performance upgrades to existing housing. 

Caroline Mostowfi (Head of Projects) has hosted a number of roundtable sessions and dialogues in recent months with local authorities and key stakeholders to discuss the benefits of effective public private partnerships and identify plans for expiry of PFI projects and infrastructure plans that may follow.

Jonathan Jarvis, along with Leo Stevens and Samantha Grix (Partners), held an event on temporary accommodation bringing together a range of voices to talk about the benefits of private investment partnership models with local authorities to deliver much need high quality housing for temporary accommodation and how delivery may be sped up.

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