Decision

(a) that the Corporate Finance & Governance Portfolio Holder on recommendation of Section 151 Officer, approves an exemption under Paragraph 2.2 of the Council’s Procurement Procedure Rules; and

(b)  that the Deputy Chief Executive and Corporate Director for Place & Wellbeing, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Economic Growth, Regeneration and Tourism, be authorised to award and enter into contract with SRC Group Ltd (of Crown Business Centre, Ardleigh, CO7 7QR, Company number 10850220) for the purposes of undertaking demolition works.

Reasons for the decision

SRC Ltd. were the sole bidder but were disqualified for not meeting the SME criteria. As no valid bids were received, EPP issued Notice UK12: Procurement Termination via the Find a Tender Service.
Despite this, the bid scored well across all other evaluation criteria. Officers have assessed the submission, with EPP reviewing Social Value and Commercial aspects. The external Principal Designer also confirmed SRC’s compliance and capability.
Demolition is critical to progressing the project and meeting the MHCLG funding deadline of March 2027, making it a priority.
Fifteen companies expressed an interest in bidding, but only one eventually did bid for the works. Since the project has strict timeframes for funding defrayment, the deliverability of the project was balanced against requirement to support SMEs via the CRP programme.
Lessons learnt for the future include:
Having a broader remit for procurement, depending upon scope and scale of the works required
Encourage SMEs to engage in advance such that we can understand any capacity or capability gaps.

Alternative options considered

1. Repeating the ITT, to include non-SMEs: Any bids received could be deemed compliant, at the cost of substantial time lost and impact on the overall programme.
2. Not undertaking demolition – this option is not viable for the delivery of the projects.