IN Brief:
- Hyde Housing Association is testing the market for a national capital and planned works framework with an indicative value of £6bn.
- The four-year Improve framework covers 13 workstreams ranging from kitchens and roofs to damp remediation, groundworks and whole-house refurbishment.
- Echelon is seeking supplier feedback before procurement, with value bands intended to support participation by SMEs and Tier One contractors.
Hyde Housing Association has begun market engagement for a proposed £6bn national framework covering capital investment and planned works across social housing and other public-sector estates.
The Improve Framework is being procured on Hyde’s behalf by Echelon Consultancy and is planned as a four-year arrangement managed by Pretium Frameworks. The £6bn figure is an indicative framework value rather than committed expenditure, with individual projects and longer-term contracts expected to be called off by participating organisations as requirements and funding are confirmed.
The proposed structure divides the work into 13 streams: kitchens and bathrooms; windows and doors; conservation and heritage works; roofs; electrical installations; infrastructure and improvement works; external and communal decorating; flooring; aids and adaptations; damp and mould remediation; groundworks; whole-house refurbishment; and estate investment. The scope brings building fabric, component replacement, accessibility work and wider estate improvements into one procurement structure without requiring every type of work to be delivered through the same contractor.
National coverage is proposed, supported by defined geographical areas, while individual workstreams are expected to be split into value bands. Echelon says the structure is intended to allow both smaller specialist contractors and Tier One organisations to participate rather than concentrating every call-off in one contract size. Eligible users are expected to include local authorities, housing associations, registered providers and other public-sector bodies.
The present stage is preliminary market engagement rather than contractor appointment. Suppliers have been invited to comment on the framework design through a survey running until 6 November, with responses intended to inform issues including lotting, geographic coverage and flexibility before the formal procurement begins. The framework itself is intended to last four years, although clients may place contracts extending beyond that period where the underlying project or service term requires it.
Separating the framework into asset-specific workstreams reflects the way planned investment is managed across large housing portfolios. Roof renewal, window replacement, electrical upgrades and damp remediation can require different supply chains, surveys, access arrangements and resident-management processes even when several are being delivered across the same estate. The proposed structure would allow landlords to combine work where that is efficient while retaining specialist routes for individual asset classes.
Damp and mould remediation has become a particularly visible part of housing asset management, but the associated construction work can range from local repairs to wider fabric, ventilation or water-ingress interventions. A framework category provides a procurement route for that work without assuming every case has the same underlying cause or technical solution.
Improve forms part of a wider suite being developed by Echelon and Pretium. The programme also includes Maintain, covering repairs and empty homes, and Protect, focused on compliance services. The three routes separate responsive maintenance, regulatory servicing and longer-term capital investment while allowing housing providers to procure them through related framework structures.
Large housing frameworks have already formed a significant part of the 2026 procurement pipeline. Orbit, for example, opened procurement for a £1.435bn housing works programme covering planned upgrades, remediation, decarbonisation and complex major projects across five regional contracts.
Hyde’s £6bn ceiling is substantially larger, but it represents procurement capacity rather than workload already committed to contractors. Actual construction volumes will depend on the number of organisations that use the framework, the projects they call off, available budgets and the timing of investment programmes during its life.
Each call-off will still require a defined scope, programme and commercial arrangement. A framework removes the need to establish an entirely new procurement route for every project, but it does not remove the design, survey, funding and asset-condition work needed before a contractor can mobilise.
That is particularly relevant for occupied housing, where construction planning must account for resident access, temporary disruption, sequencing and the condition of existing buildings. Similar component-renewal programmes can require different approaches from property to property once surveys establish what is behind finishes and within the existing fabric.
The next substantive milestone will be publication of the formal procurement documents setting out final lots, qualification requirements, evaluation criteria and geographic structure. The current consultation gives contractors and specialists an opportunity to influence those arrangements before Hyde and Echelon convert the proposed £6bn model into a live competition.
