Refurbishment Project at Benwell, Newcastle upon Tyne

Refurbishment of 163 homes comprising a mixture of houses and flats together with a community centre and associated environmental works at South Benwell, Newcastle upon Tyne. The project was procured using a 3-stage selection procedure to obtain Partnering contractors and sub-contractors. A key element of the scheme was the integration of the local community with a genuine focus on the customer i.e. residents of the estate. The selection of the contractor and key sub-contractors involved the following 3 stages:

• 1.Pre-qualification questionnaire - this document required potential partners to respond to qualitative issues, proposed team structure, identification of proposed sub-contractors, resident liaison and customer care philosophy and other scheme specific issues required by the client.
• 2.Interview / discussion - organisations were given the opportunity to meet and discuss scheme specific issues and expand upon responses contained in the questionnaire. This forum gave all parties the opportunity to discuss their attitudes and perception of partnering. The proposed project team will be requested to attend the interview and meet their potential partners.
• 3.Pricing document - this comprised a schedule of items with regard to both preliminary works and general construction works. It was imperative at this stage that each of the tenders identify their level of profit and overhead recovery to enable open book pricing to be developed. These costs submitted were the benchmark costs for the scheme.

Each stage was scored and weighted by a committee comprising The Trust, Resident and Consultant.