two new contracts proposed

section 20 notice

Statutory Section 20 notices were recently issued to Leaseholders giving notice of the City’s intention to enter into a long term agreement for:

General repairs and maintenance on City residential estates other than the Barbican
Reason: because the current contract with Wates Property Services Ltd for general repairs and maintenance ends on 31 March 2025.

AND

Balcony and roof waterproofing works on the Barbican Estate and Golden Lane Estate
Reason: because of the volume of specialist repairs needed for waterproofing various roofs and balconies currently being channelled through a general repairs contract without warranties or requiring quoted works.

NOTE: The Lease Advisory Service provides useful formation on the Section 20 consultation process.

repairs + maintenance resident working group

GLERA is a member of the HRA Repairs and Maintenance Resident Working Group which has been meeting monthly since the beginning of the 2024. We have expressed the belief that it would be appropriate for a joint GLE / Barbican repairs contract because:

• Geographical proximity. The two estates are across a road from each other.
• Listed status. There will be the same issues in terms of matching listed building fabric and making Listed Building Consent applications where necessary.
• The Estates were by the same architects and GLE was a test-bed for the design of the construction of the Barbican. Because of this both of the Estates have similar maintenance issues.
• Much of the dissatisfaction with the current maintenance regime on both Estates is caused by similar issues.
• The workshops under the Barbican can serve both Estates.

See below the CoL response as to why the Golden Lane Estate is not being coupled and procured together with the Barbican Estate as one contract for general responsive repairs and maintenance:

Background
In the summer of 2023, a decision was made by the executive director of community and children’s service to split what was then; Housing, Barbican, and Property Services into
separate entities focusing on HRA housing and Barbican residential. Each of these would have their own dedicated assistant directors and property service teams.

Procurement Approach
While it is feasible to couple Barbican Estate and Golden Lane Estate together for general
repairs, this would require tendering one lot, appointing one contractor, but with two separate contracts. Operationally this can pose challenges, especially for HRA where the team would have to manage 12 operational sites under one contract and a second contract for Golden Lane Estate specifically.

The resource the CoL would require managing two contractors for HRA would need to increase ensuring that the management of performance, operational delivery, Health & Safety requirements, financial management, etc. are contractually delivered on both.

Also following the extensive consultation across HRA and Barbican there is a distinct difference in the requirements from each contract when it comes to the tender evaluation stage. For the HRA contract there is a specific weighting towards quality, but for the Barbican the scoring mechanism is weighted more towards cost. Although there will be a minimum quality standard this would potentially lead to differing levels of service for Golden Lane Estate in comparison with the rest of the HRA Stock. This would also lead to further challenges operationally to manage two levels of service across the HRA portfolio.

On a similar note, some of the added value stuff that has come up as part of the consultation for HRA are not priorities for the Barbican. Due to the difference in funding of the contracts the Barbican residents are not necessarily interested in paying for these enhanced elements.

Considerations
The proposal of coupling the general repairs at Golden Lane Estate with the Barbican Estate is a logical conclusion, emphasising shared characteristics and their geographical proximity would provide some operational efficiencies.

The intention of the new contracts however is that both contractors get to understand the complexities of each site, and both become proficient in being able to obtain things such as listed building consent. Operationally I would expect both contractors to form a relationship and work in partnership, knowledge sharing and supporting each other across both Golden Lane and the Barbican.

Lot 3 – Waterproofing
For the waterproofing contract we are able to couple Golden Lane Estate and Barbican Estate. The operational issues such as difference in service and increased resource requirement highlighted for the general repairs contract does not fully exist for this contract. As there is not a similar contract across the other 12 HRA estates there is only one contract that requires managing, with just one level of standard to manage. This contract will operationally be delivered in a similar manner as the other specialist contracts such as asbestos, fire safety and lifts.

City of London

Leaseholders are entitled to make written observations regarding the proposed agreements by 12 June 2024. Email home.ownership@cityoflondon.gov.uk