Delivering Wider Community Benefits

Investment in social housing can, if well focused, bring real environmental, economic and social benefits to local communities. Refurbishment, maintenance and long term repairs and improvement work can play a vital role in providing jobs, training and bringing sustainable opportunities for business development at local level. Long term partnering arrangements incorporating supply chain management procurement have a far greater potential to deliver wider community benefits than a series of one off lowest price contracts. Housing clients can provide strong and visible leadership, within legislative guidelines to drive the wider community agenda effectively.

These benefits include the creation of sustainable communities, focussing on:

• Business development and employment opportunities This can be achieved through the engagement of local Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) - contractors and suppliers in long term partnering, so as to encourage their role in the sustainability of the local economy of the community.
• Clients should also at the business planning stage consult with the local business sector about their investment and procurement ambitions, and with local economic development organisations. In this way the housing investment plans can take account of local needs from the earliest stages. Local business organisations can themselves gain a good understanding of the client's needs and intentions. Smaller firms in particular will then be in a position to prepare themselves for the submissions of future bids and proposals, and on their proposals for involvement in the overall supply chain.
• Strategic briefs for most construction projects should include or relate to all wider corporate objectives. All significant schemes and programmes should have regeneration objectives and policies on SMEs, MBEs, local training, employment and equality and diversity. Clients should also firmly state their commitment to the principles of supply chain management as a means of improving innovation and delivering added value. Large contractors with a commitment to partnering are very likely to respond positively to these approaches particularly for large volume contracts or for long term contractual commitments.

Learning and training

In order to address the skills shortage in the construction industry large volume contracts or long term contractual commitments provide the opportunity to create and build a framework for training within the procurement strategy. This could focus on a joint approach to training led by the client, with the main contractor, a local college, skills centre training agency and the supply chain. Alternatively it could focus on one or more major contractors working in conjunction with their sub-contractors to recruit and train local people. This training framework would give housing clients the opportunity to bring their influence and support on capacity building their own supply chain.

There are examples of successful projects promoting best practice amongst contracting partners engaging and developing the local community's capacity to enter works programme employment as individuals and as business enterprises including engaging Black and Ethnic SMEs into the supply chain.

The creation of a sustainable environment
The learning and training frameworks can assist in addressing the increased shortage in workbased placements for construction modern apprenticeship candidates and by using a mentor support network will enhance retention and completion rates leading to sustainable employment opportunities. Such training initiatives can engage the local community in sustainable training and employment initiatives within a wider socially inclusive regeneration agenda.

Equality and Diversity

The case for the development of Equality and Diversity can also be incorporated within procurement best practice as set out in the CRE guide to procurement.

Barriers to change can be overcome by:

• By demonstrating the opportunities for achieving wider community benefits for local employment and business development to be achieved through partnering.
• Engage contractors, specialists and other suppliers in the wider agenda at local level so that they bring forward realistic and meaningful proposals to support economic and social sustainability targets.

Examples

• Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council (Link to Housing Stock Maintenance Strategic Partnering Arrangement- Project 1146 ) is delivering wider community benefits, by addressing the local labour and skills shortage, using a number of initiatives.
• United House Ltd (Link to Portsmouth City Council Gas Central Heating Partnership- Project 1116) set up an alliance with GWINTO (the Gas and Water Industrial National Training Organisation) to help people from the community to gain the skills and qualifications that will provide them with a lifelong career.
• Citywest Homes (Link to Implementation of Strategic Partnering, Major Works, Repairs and Planned Preventative Maintenance- Project 1188 ) partnering strategy encourages contractors to employ local labour from within the City of Westminster, which is specified in the works and services contracts.
• Whitefriars Services Ltd (Link to Whitefriars Maintenance, Coventry- Project 1110) identified a labour shortage as being a business risk to the successful delivery of the project and so recruited and trained local people.