Scape is expecting to appoint a contractor to its new National Civil and Infrastructure Framework by December. A notice of the framework, which is claimed to be the first national one for this type of work, was published in the OJEU this week.
“We will be hoping to invite six contractors to tender for the work in September having gone through the prequalification questionnaires received,” said Paul Bottrill, head of procurement and performance at Scape. “We’ll evaluate tenders in October and make an appoint in December with a view to starting work in January.”
Scape anticipates that the framework will be worth between £1bn and £1.5bn and come from local authorities and other public bodies. However, none have specifically signed up yet and the winning bidder will work with Scape to promote the framework to public bodies. Bottrill said the award will go to a single bidder which may be a major company or a consortium of suppliers bidding as a joint venture, who meet the criteria, which would include their social impact and employment of local people.
A wide range of civil engineering and infrastructure services will be incorporated in the framework including: engineering construction works; minor incidental building works; architectural, construction, engineering and inspection services; urban planning and landscape architectural services; laboratory services; consulting services for water supply; monitoring and control services.
Scape is a local authority controlled company, based in Nottingham, whose shareholders are Derby City, Derbyshire County, Gateshead, Nottingham City, Nottinghamshire County and Warwickshire County Councils.
Scape says the framework will provide public sector clients with the efficiency benefits of collaborative procurement as well as aiming to increase quality, effectiveness and ensuring quicker practical service delivery.
Mark Robinson, group chief executive at Scape, said: “Scape has expertise from years of procuring construction and our latest framework will meet directly the needs of our incumbent and potential new public sector clients.
“It comes at a time when the government has committed to investing more than £100bn of capital in specific projects in the lifetime of the next Parliament and the framework will be able to deliver on large-scale, high-profile projects such as associated infrastructure around HS2.
“More immediately it will meet the needs of many public sector bodies to carry out projects such as flood defence work, footbridges, public realm and local road network improvements.”
