empa brings strength in numbers

It is often said that there is strength in numbers and this is certainly the case at East Midlands Property Alliance (empa), which was formed by local authorities in the East Midlands to improve the delivery of property services to their communities

The alliance was launched in March 2008 with 14 local authority members. It has continued to grow from strength to strength and now 36 of the 46 East Midlands local authorities are involved in empa in some way, shape or form.

The idea is that the authorities will work together, putting them in a stronger position to get the best possible deals from the marketplace and allowing them to work smarter with the supply chain and to share their knowledge. empa also aims to improve procurement through its frameworks and to provide training to SMEs.

Scape System Build Limited, a local authority controlled company, whose shareholders are: Derby City, Derbyshire County, Gateshead, Nottingham City, Nottinghamshire County and Warwickshire County councils acts as empa’s managing agent.

Alan Coole, development manager for Scape, explains the aims of the organisation: “It is really to help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the service delivery, so as budgets get squeezed and this is going to be particularly relevant for the next 12 to 24 months, local authorities are going to have to do things differently.

“They won’t have the resources to do what they have done in the past or sufficient turnover or capital expenditure individually to have an effective framework to deliver their contracts. Together they are a much bigger entity and can together bring the best deal from the market, individually it is less so – there are still some powerful authorities but certainly nowhere near as big as they are together.”

The current members are local authorities but other public bodies such as the police and ambulance services are showing interest in participating.

The alliance has an elected board of local authority representatives voted for by members and participants, which sets its agenda. The setting up of the contractor framework agreements, which cover virtually all sizes of projects, has perhaps been one of the alliance’s most significant achievements to date.

There is a minor works framework for projects from £10,000 to £2 million, which has 80 projects in process, valued at circa £16 million, 40 projects which are ongoing or about to start on site and six completed. The intermediate framework is for projects from £2 million to £7.5 million and has 17 projects in process valued at around £95 million and four projects which are ongoing or about to start on site.

Running alongside these are developments in repairs and maintenance, asset management and technical services frameworks with a large projects framework for projects from £7.5 million to £30 million is set to launch next month.

Contracting partners on the minor works framework are Ashe Construction, Mansell Construction, Langwith Builders, Herbert Baggaley Construction, Jeakins Weir, J.Tomlinson, Morgan Ashurst, GT Tomlinson, Robert Woodhead, Lindum and Interserve Project Services.

While Wates, Kier Marriott and Willmott Dixon are the contract partners for the intermediate framework.

“Not every local authority or public body is involved with everything as they pick and choose what they want to be involved in,” explains Coole. “But obviously we try to make sure that sufficient work goes through each framework agreement to make them worthwhile for everybody.”

The alliance also gives its members the chance to get the best deal from suppliers and has its own supply chain with over 1,000 registered members. “SMEs can register and they then go forward to be considered as supply chain partners on projects,” explains Coole. “If they need some help with their systems and procedures to get to the required standard we automatically refer them to Business Link to get that support.”

Training is high on the agenda for empa, which has worked with SMEs to help them through the tender process. It also provides an eight-week training cycle for clients to help them understand their ability to manage framework contracts.

And on 1 February it launched the first Construction Skills Academy to be based solely around a regional framework rather than a large project.

Making sure that there is a strong skills base for the future is important to empa and is part of its bid to make regional economies stronger by ensuring that money is put back into local communities. “All public bodies are under pressure to ensure their capital expenditure provides their local economy with as much benefit as possible,” explains Coole. “We look at how much project expenditure takes place locally and see how much of their money is being recycled back into their economy.

“The frameworks have only been up and running for less than 12 months but the early indications on site so far are that they will achieve quite challenging targets in terms of local expenditure.”

Major ongoing projects being carried out through empa’s frameworks include the refurbishment of Northampton Market Square, projects at a number of schools in Lincolnshire and a heritage centre in Spalding, as well as planned maintenance work.

The alliance has also been working closely with local authorities, who are embarking on new-build programmes, helping to guide them through the bidding process to attract the necessary funding.

“Local authorities by and large haven’t been used to bidding for housing for years. In fact one local authority said it had been 20 years since they had last been involved in new build,” says Coole. “They have asked for some help as a large part of the process is just about experience of knowing how to
go about it. We have successfully worked with several authorities to bid for funds, and some developments are due to start on site in the near future.”

The alliance is not the first of its kind but it is somewhat of a trailblazer and Coole is happy to share empa’s knowledge with emerging organisations, hoping to follow suit.

“Some of the UK regions have already got frameworks that are very good, so we are not the first. I wouldn’t be presumptuous enough to say we are the best but we are leading along with other organisations,” he says. “There are also some regions, who are in the process of setting frameworks up, and we are very happy to help them negotiate around the pitfalls. Engagement with an authority is a big task and obviously things have to be done properly through the OJEU process. It is also important not to underestimate the time that it takes to do everything as it is a long process and very resource intensive.”

empa has come a long way since the concept was first mooted and is no doubt a force to be reckoned with in the East Midlands but Coole admits that it has been a challenge to get local authorities to talk to each other, to be prepared to compromise and to accept the benefits of collaborative working.

Looking to the future there are plans to grow the organisation both in terms of membership and remit.

“The alliance is a very inclusive organisation and while principally we are for local authorities we are very welcoming of other public bodies and we would like to have as many members as we can,” says Coole. “At the moment we are setting things up for the long term – that is the key message – we are not going to set things up and walk away, we are here to stay.”