UK’s biggest modular building framework out for tender

Bidding is to begin soon for places on the UK’s biggest modular building framework covering schools and other public buildings.

The procurement is being run by the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham council but is open to contracting authorities across Greater London, East Anglia and the home counties.

The four-year framework could have an estimated value of up to £800m, giving it the potential to become the biggest local authority modular building programme in the country. 

Procurement chiefs at the council have split the framework into four lots – standard modular units for purchase or hire, and bespoke modular buildings worth up to £3.5m and over £3.5m.

Nine months ago the council awarded a major school building framework for a group of east London councils after they decided to shun the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s framework.

The move into modular building comes after the ESFA revealed last week it had picked Caledonian and Styles & Woods to pilot the first 16 offsite primary schools under the second wave of the Priority School Building Programme.

The council will be running the tender process through its e-tendering portal, with PQQs completed by 29 September.

The framework will be available for use by public sector contracting authorities in the Greater London area, as well as contracting authorities in the counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Surrey and Kent.