Council joins JV North to deliver 90-home scheme
Bury Council has joined social house building consortium JV North as it embarks on a 90-home development scheme.
The local authority has become a procurement member allowing it to access JV North’s £180m framework of contractors and consultants.
Up to 90 houses will be built on brownfield sites across Bury by May 2021 and made available for shared ownership and affordable rent.
The homes are the first phase of a 500-unit building programme that will be delivered on Bury Council-owned sites over the next three years.
Director of housing growth and development at Bury Council, Christine Fallon, said: “JV North has a long and impressive track-record of building new homes so being able to call off proven specialists like architects, quantity surveyors and contractors was very appealing.
“It will allow us to tender works for our home building programme quickly and in a cost-effective manner, enabling us to start on-site far sooner.
“In turn, this will allow us to provide residents with new homes featuring contemporary designs and help address housing demand in our communities.”
Wayne Gales, who is JV North chairman and chief executive of Weaver Vale Housing Trust, said: “Our framework continues to be very popular with social landlords and local authorities as it greatly assists their home building work and we are always looking for new organisations to join what is a unique and very successful consortium.
“The framework offers an array of procurement benefits with tenders being received from larger companies for work over £1m as well as from SMEs for schemes valued under £1m.
“It also meets EU procurement rules and ensures best value for money.”
He added: “Crucially, it means homes can be built far quicker so people in local communities can benefit.”
JV North’s framework is valued at £180m and runs until June 2021.
It is managed by the Saffer Cooper Consultancy and SMEs can apply to join at any time via the In-Tend procurement portal.
JV North currently consists of eight full, 12 associate and two procurement members.
Since forming in 2007 the consortium has built the equivalent of two homes every working day with 4,760 properties being constructed in the 2016/21 Shared Ownership Affordable Homes Programme thanks to an investment of more than £500m between members and Homes England.
