IN Brief:
- New Forest District Council has published an award notice naming 13 distinct suppliers across its housing maintenance framework.
- The framework contains 11 trade categories and is intended primarily for reactive repairs to social housing properties.
- Its £7.16m indicative ceiling applies across the arrangement, not separately to each lot, contractor or awarded place.
New Forest District Council has published a contract award notice for its multi-contractor housing maintenance framework, naming 13 distinct companies across a programme intended primarily to support repairs to social housing and other council property. The framework divides services by trade, so the council can call on appropriate contractors for particular repairs without treating one appointment as the exclusive supplier for all works. Its procurement documentation specifies an overall estimated ceiling of £7.16m including VAT, which applies to the arrangement as a whole rather than being available afresh to every contractor or lot.
The published structure contains 11 lots covering multi-trade repairs, cleaning, drainage and water mains, electrical work, fencing and gates, flooring including wet rooms, garage doors and frames, glazing and window or door overhaul, locksmith services, roofing repairs and the refurbishment of empty homes. Nine of those lots have named awardees in the available award summary. Cleaning and locksmith services appear in the framework structure but no awardee is identified for those two categories in that summary; they should not be presented as confirmed supplier appointments without further evidence.
The named businesses are Bundlehome, Crystal Electronics, D R Jones (Yeovil), Ecosafe Heating trading as Ecosafe Group, Elite South, G R Westbuild, LJH Electrical Southern, Metro Rod, Rescue Rod, Signix, Southern Projects, Upton Specialised Tree Services and Westmade. Several suppliers appear against more than one trade. That repetition reflects positions in separate lots, not additional distinct businesses, and the thirteen-company total must not be confused with the total number of lot places. The notice’s principle is to allow up to three contractors per lot, with some categories having fewer named winners.
The largest part of the scope is routine and responsive building work. The multi-trade lot covers repairs to masonry, joinery, plaster and plumbing, alongside minor external works and reinstatement. Separate drainage and electrical lots allow more specialist tasks to be allocated without requiring every general building contractor to maintain the same accredited capabilities. Roofing and glazing are also treated as distinct trades, recognising that weatherproofing work involves different materials, access arrangements and defect assessment from internal refurbishment.
Void-property refurbishment is another dedicated lot. Work on an empty council dwelling can involve repairs or replacements to doors, floors, kitchens and bathrooms, together with decoration, clearance and external making good. Its programme requirements differ from emergency repairs in an occupied home: a void job may be sequenced to return a property to lettable condition, while an urgent water or weatherproofing defect in an occupied building can require a faster response and careful protection of residents. The specification describes both streams but does not publish guaranteed annual volumes for either.
The authority says the framework will be used mainly by its Housing Maintenance Operations team, while other council services, including coastal and public facilities, housing options and estates and valuation, may also call on it. That broad eligibility should not be taken to mean each service has already placed an order. The arrangement is demand-led and explicitly subject to available budgets; being named on a framework is a contractual opportunity rather than evidence of a fixed turnover. The published £7.16m figure is a planning ceiling, not the sum of contracts already performed.
The procurement provides for an initial two-year term from 2026, with the option of two further one-year extensions at the council’s discretion. The 2026–30 description therefore reflects the maximum possible period, rather than four years of guaranteed activity. The authority says extension decisions will depend on factors including performance and service requirements, and the original specification links the flexibility partly to uncertainty around local government reorganisation. No decision to exercise the extensions has yet been announced.
Repair orders will determine actual spending and the mix of work allocated to each supplier. The award notice does not contain evidence of post-award response times or completed maintenance outcomes, so the first meaningful test will be call-off delivery and the council’s assessment of repair performance.
