IN Brief:
- Clarion is seeking a design and build contractor for 260 affordable apartments in Merton.
- The £90 million package includes landscaping, access and associated infrastructure.
- Revised Phase 3 plans respond to affordable housing priorities and updated building regulations.
Clarion Regeneration has opened a £90 million procurement for the design and construction of 260 affordable apartments at High Path Phase 3 in the London Borough of Merton.
The contract covers the residential buildings together with landscaping, access and associated infrastructure. All 260 apartments are identified as affordable housing in the procurement notice, with the competition being run through a competitive flexible procedure.
Clarion currently expects to make an award decision by 1 June 2027. The contract is scheduled to begin on 14 June 2027 and run until 30 July 2032, giving the selected contractor responsibility for a programme extending over more than five years.
High Path forms part of Clarion’s wider Merton regeneration programme, which is intended to create more than 3,200 homes while replacing around 1,000 existing properties. The wider programme also includes new community facilities, public space and improvements intended to reconnect the estate more effectively with its surroundings.
Phase 3 has changed substantially since an earlier planning application was paused in 2023. Clarion subsequently revised the proposals following changes to building safety and other regulatory requirements, while also altering the tenure mix and configuration of the buildings.
The revised plans move Phase 3 away from its earlier private-sale emphasis and towards affordable housing, allowing remaining eligible residents to be rehoused sooner. Clarion has also reduced the proposed number of blocks from five to four.
Updated fire safety, overheating and energy efficiency requirements have influenced the redesign. Those issues now form part of the scheme before the main construction contract is awarded rather than being left for adjustment during later design development.
The £90 million procurement therefore covers more than the repetition of an earlier consented design. Bidders will be pricing a scheme reshaped by regulatory change, affordable housing delivery requirements and the practical constraints of construction within a wider occupied regeneration programme.
Phasing will be particularly important. High Path is being redeveloped over a series of stages, with existing residents moving as replacement homes become available. The Phase 3 contractor will need to coordinate construction with access, resident movements and infrastructure required by later parts of the estate programme.
Landscaping and public realm also form part of the package. Clarion’s revised plans defer part of the northern neighbourhood park to a later phase, reflecting the decision to prioritise homes for existing residents. The selected contractor will therefore be working within a masterplan whose individual components continue beyond the limits of the Phase 3 contract.
Design responsibility will sit alongside construction delivery. The successful bidder will need to manage technical development, compliance, programme control and interfaces between residential buildings, access routes and external works rather than receiving a completely fixed construction package.
The building safety environment has changed significantly since the original Phase 3 proposals were prepared. Higher levels of scrutiny now apply to design information, fire safety and the management of changes, increasing the importance of coordination between client, designer, contractor and specialist supply chain before work progresses on site.
The affordable tenure also changes the commercial structure of the phase. Programme certainty and handover standards carry particular weight where new homes are intended to rehouse existing residents, while the development is less dependent on the pace of private market sales envisaged under the earlier approach.
Clarion has left a substantial period between the current tender and the proposed June 2027 start. The competitive process will need to test technical capability, design management, price and delivery approach before mobilisation begins.
The procurement notice identifies an estimated value of £90 million excluding VAT. At 260 apartments, the package represents a significant main construction commitment within the Merton programme before the costs of later phases and wider estate infrastructure are considered.
High Path is already an active regeneration project rather than an undeveloped masterplan. Earlier phases have progressed while Clarion has continued consultation and design work on the later estate. The Phase 3 tender now converts the revised affordable housing proposal into a defined construction opportunity.
The award is scheduled for June 2027, subject to the procurement running to programme. From that point, the selected contractor would be expected to carry the revised phase through detailed design, construction and phased completion until summer 2032.
