This year needs to be one of procurement evolution – New Civil Engineer

This is a year of opportunity for contractors working in the built environment. Regenerative infrastructure projects including innovations in highways, rail and flood defences will play a vital role in creating stronger local economies in a post-pandemic world. But as well as being a year of opportunity for contractors, it should be seen as an opportunity to evolve procurement.

Mark Robinson is group chief executive at leading procurement authority Scape

As part of the UKs recovery efforts, government departments and local authorities have been tasked with delivering such high-quality projects at speed in order to drive better outcomes for communities across the UK.

Yet we still live in turbulent times. The industry has had every challenge thrown at it over the last two years and while the end of Covid pandemic might be in sight, the ongoing squeeze to the supply of labour and concerns around inflation and supply chain disruption are likely to affect the speed at which future projects get off the ground.

While many contractors remain upbeat about the outlook ahead, changes within the governance of public sector procurement have paved the way for a transformation in the way in which these future projects will be delivered, and, more importantly, what is now expected from civil delivery partners.

Three recent developments will reshape public procurement in the UK. All civils projects in 2022 must follow the principles of the Construction Playbook, the governments blueprint for best practice and take into account the findings of the independent Cabinet Office construction frameworks review, led by former Kings College London director of construction law David Mosey. Both developments are spearheaded by the Procurement Bill which will appear before parliament this year to underline the reforms to public procurement regulations.

When taxpayers money is concerned, procurement must be best-in-class. These legislative and policy developments have not only set a new gold standard for public sector clients, framework providers and contractors but will go a long way in helping to deliver projects with strong social value and green credentials.

As one of the organisations consulted on how we should define this gold standard, I welcome the findings of the Mosey review and the long-term direction that government is taking to drive value whether social, environmental or economic.

These plans will be further shaped by the 24 recommendations set out by the review, which include extensive support and accountability in relation to helping the public estate achieve net zero status, generating social value, stimulating innovation through modern methods of construction, minimising or eradicating waste, connecting supply chains and ensuring that they are treated fairly. Critically, Mosey calls for contractually binding action plans around these objectives something that, again, many have long been implementing.

Ultimately, we need to see greater consistency in the outcomes created by publicly funded civil engineering frameworks. As the Mosey Review highlights, bid costs are no small undertaking for contractors, so it is vital that framework providers offer robust support to those securing places on them, as well as the supply chain.

The best outcomes can be achieved where there is active management of frameworks to produce tangible outcomes. We have in-built standards that ensure a constant focus on value in all its varied forms, and every 1M spent on our frameworks generates 300,000 of social value for the local community. This can only be done with a programme of early engagement, which we enable with our direct award approach and local supply chain delivery.

Where we as procurement specialists, and those using our services, should take heart is in the component parts that the Mosey Review expects the gold standard to be made of. Indeed, I would go as far as to argue that many frameworks are already meeting or exceeding these standards. The reviews recommendations to set standards will raise the bar across the sector, while driving further innovation among those already operating at or beyond them.

The key now is to take these pockets of innovation and turn them into business as usual.If more projects and contractors can adopt best-practice behaviours and processesthen theres no reason we cant deliver on the UKs infrastructure needs in the coming years.

We are already seeing some significant innovation from our own civil delivery partners from the Scape Civil Engineering framework, using technology, creativity and a real commitment to improve the design, delivery and whole life cost performance of our national infrastructure. In most parts, the Whitehall recommendations seek to rubber-stamp a way forward where many in the industry were already leading by example.

In terms of the opportunities ahead, Scape is preparing to open bidding in February for spots on its next generation civil engineering framework. The re-procurement is a suite of 4bn, including a 3.25bn framework for England, Wales and Northern Ireland and a separate 750M framework for Scotland, managed and operated by Scape Scotland.

Scapes existing frameworks, both secured by Balfour Beatty, have delivered more than 250 projects to date for public sector clients and are due to expire in January 2023.

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