Agenda and minutes

Question:

Could the relevant Portfolio Holder please explain to me why a company based in Cardiff is currently contracted to carry out all heating replacements and refits to domestic properties in Brecon & Radnorshire, when I understood; we, as an authority were committed to awarding contracts to local companies.

Response by the Portfolio Holder:

Powys County Council are bound by Public Contracts Regulations 2015, which legislate how we must tender works of this value.  The council are obligated to advertise such tenders across the UK and Europe.  It is not within the council’s power to award scores based on a tenderers location or to limit the tender responses to the local area, all tenders are required to be carried out in a clear and transparent manner.

Prior to tendering the heating installations contract at the end of 2017, work was undertaken identifying all heating contractors in Powys who had the necessary registrations with GasSafe, Oftec, HETAS and MCS and these contractors were all invited to a pre-tender event in Builth Wells during July 2017, where they were able to learn about the councils requirements.  Business Wales also supported this event in order to assist companies in Powys who may not have been used to tendering for public sector contracts.  Unfortunately, only two Powys based heating companies attended the event.

We broke the requirement down into 6 different Lots, to enable smaller companies to get involved, as follows:

Lot 1 - Gas, Oil Fired Appliances and Solid Fuel- North area of Powys

Lot 2 - Air Source Heat Pumps and Electric - North area of Powys

Lot 3 - Gas, Oil Fired Appliances and Solid Fuel– South area of Powys

Lot 4 - Air Source Heat Pumps and Electric - South of Powys

Contractors were restricted on the number of Lots they could apply for.  This ensures that the contract is of lower interest to big companies from outside of the area as well as offering further opportunities within the region.

The tender closed in January 2018 with only one response received from a Powys based company who, unfortunately, did not meet the basic minimum requirements of the council regarding their Constructionline registration.  The minimum requirements were discussed at the pre-tender event and were clearly defined within both the Contract Notice and throughout the tender documentation.  These minimum requirements included suitable registrations with Constructionline and CHAS as per council policy, relevant insurances and heating specific registrations with GasSafe, Oftec, HETAS and MCS where required for the Lot applied for.