Issue - meetings

James House Temporary Homeless Accommodation - Approval for Budget Revisions and Authorisation to Appoint the Successful Contractor

Meeting: 15/03/2018 - Executive (Item 150)

James House Temporary Homeless Accommodation - Approval for Budget Revisions and Authorisation to Appoint the Successful Contractor

Decision:

Recommended: That Council approve the revised budget of £12.4m for the James House project, financed from £2.451m Homes England grant and £9.949m from the Housing Revenue Account (investment reserve, capital receipts and commuted sums), thereby ensuring no increase in cost to the council).

Reason: To enable the construction contract for the new homeless accommodation at James House to be awarded, £2.451m Homes England grant funding to be claimed, and a start on site achieved by 29 March 2018.

Minutes:

[See also under Part A minutes]

The Assistant Director for Housing & Community Safety presented a report which sought approval for a revised budget for the James House project, and for officers to award the works contract for the project and seek further grant funding from Homes England.

This item had been added to the agenda under urgency procedures because a decision was required to enable work to commence before 29 March, in order to secure the grant awarded by Homes England.

The following options were presented:

Option 1 – approve the revised budget and allow officers to award the works contract, as recommended. This would enable £2.451m grant funding to be secured, thus reducing the cost to the council, despite an overall increase in the project costs.

Option 2 – instruct officers to re-tender the scheme. This was considered unlikely to result in a reduced cost and would lead to poorer outcomes in key elements of the scheme.