Procurement description
Portsmouth City Council ('the Council'), is seeking to appoint a contractor to deliver Fire Compliance Services across its housing stock, with an estimated annual value of between £800k and £1M. The contract will be let for an initial 5-year term, with the option to extend by up to a further 5 years in intervals to be agreed.
The scope of services will include statutory servicing inspections, responsive repairs, and planned maintenance works, ensuring compliance with all relevant regulations and maintaining the safety and functionality of the Council's fire installations. This is new procurement taking existing functions from other existing contracts so to focus on fire safety compliance.
Housing Stock Information
The Council has a housing stock of approximately 17,500 properties of which approximately 15,500 are socially rented and then there are approximately 2000 leasehold properties. Within the stock there is a mix of housing types including houses and bungalows; however, the majority of the dwellings are within purpose-built blocks of flats constructed in the 1950s and 1960s.
Traditionally the estate has been spread across the two geographical areas of Portsea Island and Paulsgrove (on-island, PO1 to PO5), and Havant (off-island, PO6 to PO9).
A recent acquisition of approximately 800 properties has however subsequently increased the 'off-island' area to sites in Gosport, Fareham and Winchester.
Corporate Assets
In addition to the residential housing stock the 'on island' repairs and maintenance contractor also manages repairs for a number of the Council's corporate asset. This is a function managed by the 'on island' contractor only.
The on-island contractor is responsible for approximately 550 assets across both geographical areas, however these are predominantly within the PO1-PO5 postcode.
• The Council's broader property portfolio encompasses a range of building types which include but are not limited to:
• Schools
• Offices
• Commercial buildings, warehouses and depots
• Care homes
• Sheltered housing and supported living properties
• Maritime port facilities
Current & Future Demand
Annual fire door surveys is a new contractual requirement, and it is expected that approximately 2500 will need to be inspected each year.
Within the first few years of the contract the number of services and repairs are anticipated to remain fairly consistent with 2024.
The Council is currently working on a number of development options, and it is anticipated that within the next 5-10 years there is potential for up to 1000 additional dwellings to be created that will require some level of maintenance and consequently will need to be absorbed into any new contract.
Changing Context and Objectives
Over the next 5-10 years the Council is expecting to experience a number of challenges with regards to the maintenance of its housing and general fund properties with any incumbent provider to work in partnership with the Council to ease pressures where they can.
Significant changes in legislation such as the Building Safety Act and Fire Safety Act will require greater scrutiny from suppliers to ensure they are working in a compliant way and may require them to adopt new skills such as undertaking works as a result of Building Safety Cases for buildings of 11m+.
There will be more focus on the accuracy and timely manner of up-load of compliance information and ensuring repairs to blocks of 11m+ are well managed and resolved to avoid enforcement action by the Fire Authority, with compliance also being monitored by the Social Housing Regulator.
Scope and specification of requirements
The core scope of works, which the successful supplier will be required to deliver are -
• Fire and Intruder Alarm testing and repair
• Sprinkler testing and repair
• AOV and Smoke Vent testing and repair
• Fire door surveys
• Lightening Conductor testing and repair
• Fire Damper testing and repair
• Fire Extinguishers inspection and replacement
• Dry Riser inspection and repair
• Evacuation Alert testing and repair
• Warden Call testing and repair
• Disabled Alarms testing and repair
• Out of hours cover
The supplier will be required to resource an out of hours service which is available 365 days a year.
Ancillary Scope of Works
The ancillary scope of works, which the successful supplier may be required to deliver, namely:
• Intruder Alarm testing and repair
• Warden Call testing and repair
• PAT testing
• Powered Door repair
The Specification has been designed to ensure that all Suppliers have an effective and equal understanding of the contract's functional and performance requirements.
Full details of requirements can be found in the Draft Specification Document. The Council reserves the right to make amendments to the specification when issuing the second stage tender.
Partnership Working
In addition to working in close partnership with the council, the supplier will also be required to work in partnership with the council's other existing term service contractor partners.
Social Value
The Council are committed to continuously reviewing and improving the approach to social value delivery, and suppliers can find further information using the following link -
https://www.portsmouth.gov.uk/services/council-and-democracy/social-value/
Contract model, term & value
The council intends to award a single NEC 4 Option A term contract; a draft has been included in the Conditions of Participation pack
The initial contract will be for 5 years with an option to extend by up to a further 5 years in increments to be agreed.
The Council are estimating the contract value will be in the region of £800k to £1m per annum.
Based on anticipated inflationary uplifts and potential growth in housing stock, the total individual contract spend over the potential 10-year term (5-year base with options to extend) is expected to range between £11m to £13m.
As this procurement is for a new service there may be slight fluctuation outside of the anticipated range stated above, which has been determined using budget coding from financial years 2024/25 and 2025/26. As the coding is generic for compliance there may be activities within the budget that remain with the existing incumbent and do not form part of this contract. Outside of range sums will likely be lower than anticipated rather than higher, although a best estimate is provided at the time of tender. A more precise budget will be established during the service.
Local Government Review
As part of the wider Local Government Review (LGR), the Council is required to actively engage in discussions with neighbouring authorities to explore potential opportunities for collaboration, shared service delivery, and governance alignment. While this engagement is ongoing, no formal decisions or agreements have been reached at this stage.
Under current LGR proposals, it is likely to require Portsmouth City Council to form a new Authority by merging with other neighbouring Authorities. For Portsmouth, this will result in a new Council being created to provide the same services to everyone in the city, whilst covering a larger area and have a different name. Effectively all the current council services in the area of the new council boundary would be merged to create a new Council.
At this stage, the Council can only confirm its current demand and scope of requirements; however, this may be subject to change should additional needs arise from other local authorities as part of wider structural reforms.
Any tender opportunities and contracts will be structured to allow adjustments in the scope of services and the value of contracts to the Council to respond to changes in demand and budgetary constraints, whilst ensuring that services remain efficient and continue to provide value for money. Additionally, provisions will be included to adapt to changes in geographical boundaries resulting from any reorganisation. This will ensure that services can be extended or retracted to align with new administrative areas.
The impacts of Local Government Review cannot be fully understood at this stage. However, when considering the potential surrounding local authorities and their current property portfolios, the Council anticipate the annual value of the Fire Safety Compliance Services could increase in the region of £250k per year, in the event these services needed to be subsumed into this opportunity. Therefore, taking account, the potential value stated in the total value of the opportunity over the 10-year period could be up to £16m.
In the event of reorganisation, contracts will include clauses that allow for the assignment of the contract to successor authorities. Any assignment clause is likely to state any contract may be assigned to any new authority that succeeds the original contracting authority.
For further details in respect of LGR see the following link -
https://www.portsmouth.gov.uk/services/council-and-democracy/devolution-and-plans-for-local-government-reorganisation/