Purpose

Award of Schedule of Rates contract to deliver
building services, emergency repairs, reactive repairs, and planned
preventative maintenance work on the Council's land and property
portfolio. This includes minor capital maintenance works

Decision

The Assistant Director
of Property and Investment has approved the award of a contract for
the General Building Works Schedule of Rates Contract to Wilsons
Development and Construction Ltd (Company Number 8983160) for a
period of 2 years with the option to extend for a further year on
two occasions to undertake planned preventive maintenance, reactive
repairs and emergency repairs in relation to the Council's land and
property with an estimated contract value of  £7.2M over a period of four years.
 

Reasons for the decision

Wirral Borough Council
has a large portfolio of assets that require regular repairs and
maintenance, including planned, reactive and emergency work.
Ensuring that the Council has the ability to appoint contractors to
do this work is an essential step to take.
 
Presently the
Facilities Management team provide planned and reactive maintenance
services for the Council's land and property either directly or on
behalf of the Council's service areas. In addition, the Council is
implementing a Corporate Landlord Model, whereby ultimately this
team will be responsible for the maintenance of Council owned land
and buildings in the future, excepting schools, which have
differing management arrangements. The Council's property portfolio
is comprised of a mixture of operational and non-operational
assets, ranging from offices and publicly accessed venues,
commercial and retail properties and assets held for regeneration
and schools.
 
The Council has a
statutory duty to ensure that its assets comply with relevant
Health and Safety legislation and Regulations.
 
The award of the new
general building contract will allow the Council's Facilities
Management team to deliver building services, emergency repairs,
reactive repairs, and planned preventative maintenance work on the
Council's land and property portfolio. This includes minor capital
maintenance works.
 

Alternative options considered

There
is not a do-nothing option. The Council needs to have a contract in
place for the reasons set out in this report.
 
The
Council could look to let individual pieces of work on a
case-by-case basis. This would present a significant challenge to
administer, significantly increase the cost of administration and
would not be satisfactory for certain works, for example emergency
call out. Not commissioning would generate significant challenges
to the Facilities Management team, impacting their operational
effectiveness, in provision of works and would have significant
implications for the operation of the Council's property portfolio,
which may lead to asset non availability or Health and Safety
implications.
 
The
Council could explore other options, for example outsourcing
models, however there is a requirement for a contract to be in
place now to enable delivery of works and any development of a
proposal for outsourcing would need to be properly developed, so
the best outcome for the Council could be achieved and the contract
mobilised.