A contract to build four new council flats in the centre of Brighton is close to being awarded.
The decision follows a delay of more than a year because Brighton and Hove City Council struggled to find a contractor to build the flats in Frederick Street, Brighton.
The council advertised the work but there was “a lack of interest” and only one firm submitted a tender, with an estimate that was deemed to be too expensive.
Officials were also concerned that the tender did not contain enough detail to demonstrate that the contractor was capable of carrying out such a complex job.
The site is an “infill” plot on a modest-sized former car park a few yards along Frederick Street and across the road from the Three Jolly Butchers pub.
After a frustrating result from the first “open tender” process, council officials tried a different way to find a building contractor.
They now want councillors to give their backing to the change of approach which involved a “mini competition” among trusted suppliers using an online procurement platform.
If councillors agree, senior officers will aim to finalise the award of the contract promptly with an unnamed firm – again, the only bidder for the work.
Housing chiefs hope that their preferred contractor will be on site by late summer to start work on the £1.4 million scheme.
The council had expected to be welcoming the first tenants to their new homes next month before the timetable slipped.
The scheme was granted planning permission in April 2020 – and a report to the council’s Housing Committee said: “The open tender process was unsuccessful, partly due to the lack of interest in a small, complex infill site at a time when contractors are in demand and can be selective.
“The site was also tendered during a period of economic uncertainty resulting in some contractors feeling unable to deliver the project.
“(Council procurement officials) reported some other open tenders were struggling to gain traction within the contractor market.”
The report to the Housing Committee added: “The project remains within budget and construction works can start this year.”
Two of the four flats will be studio flats while the other two will have two bedrooms each.
In 2019, councillors said that they wanted the two-bed flats to be rented out at “local housing allowance” rates – or just over £200 a week.
And they wanted the one-bed flats to be let for a “living rent” which would mean rent levels of just over £100 a week.
The Housing Committee is being asked to back the revised approach to procuring a building contractor so that officials can award a contract to the unnamed firm.
The committee is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 4pm next Wednesday (22 June). The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.
This is a concern. Why are the council not doing in house building? they have plans for so many projects and the delays and choice for builders is a joke. Unnamed also, not very transparent.
Oxford Road refurb is another example, it went substantially over budget and took years and years to actually get the thing refurbed.
A very poor piece of work this and whoever is running this project, clearly needs help!
1.4million for four small flats the council is having a laugh at the public expense once again money being wasted which will never be recouped and people moving into these will give it the needed time and buy then cheap
So, it will allegedly cost £1.4m for a tiny block of infill flats, which no builder is really interested in. Should they ever get built, no doubt the cost will have risen to an even more hair-raising amount.
However, I suppose that this dubious estimate, in present-day money, looks rather better value than the latest estimate of the same amount for an experimental LTN in Hanover and Elm Grove, which most residents don’t seem to want and will probably get reversed at even more expense down the road(and there has been an apparently skewed council questionnaire which, it seems, didn’t ask whether residents wanted an LTN, but just gave them 2 options as to how this LTN would be).
We can moan all we want about the political controllers of the council (and we justifiably do), but is it actually paid officers who are a major part of the problem here?
Just asking.