Apr 5 2005
English Partnerships has announced details today of the Design for Manufacture Competition along with the first four sites which will be used to pilot the construction of sustainable, well-designed, good quality homes for around £60,000.
The competition is being run by national regeneration agency English Partnerships on behalf of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.
Organisations and consortia are being invited to bid for the right to construct on one or more new developments on sites owned by English Partnerships and other public sector partners.
Around 470 homes will be built on the initial pilot sites which are located at Oxley Park, Milton Keynes; Oxford Road, Aylesbury; Upton, Northampton and Allerton Bywater Millennium Community, near Leeds. An additional list of sites will be announced at a later stage.
Trevor Beattie, English Partnerships’ Director of Corporate Strategy, said; “This competition will stimulate fresh thinking in the way we construct our homes and demonstrate how we can build more cost effectively without sacrificing quality.” He continues, “Construction costs have continued to rise above the rate of inflation at a time when we need to be building more homes for our money, not less. By using public sector land to provide the sites, developers will be able to focus all their efforts on achieving cost efficiencies and increasing design quality. Once we have established how these efficiencies can be made we expect them to be adopted across the whole supply chain.”
A minimum of 30 per cent of the homes will be constructed for a target cost of £60,000. The remainder will comprise larger and smaller units which will be built using equivalent processes and cost efficiencies. The figure of £60,000 is a target construction cost only, not a development cost or sale price. The competition will be open to all types of building methods, suppliers and materials. Development briefs or design codes where applicable will be provided against which shortlisted bidders will be expected to respond with their proposals.
As a minimum all homes must follow the principles of the Urban Design Compendium published by English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation in 2000 and achieve the BREEAM Eco Homes standard of ‘very good’ or equivalent. The initial pilot sites are mainly in the South East growth areas and are part of larger schemes where infrastructure is already in place. Each competition site will include a range of housing types and tenures. An OJEU notice inviting expressions of interest from organisations and consortia in the next few weeks is published today. Initial entries will be judged by a Technical Advisory Group of professional consultants and English Partnerships representatives who will draw up a shortlist of bidders. The shortlisted organisations will be invited to bid for part or a whole development site later this year. Final entries will be chosen by an independent judging panel alongside community representatives from each of the sites. The final recommendations will be put to Ministers for approval.
As part of the process, English Partnerships will also be seeking opportunities for public participation and debate. It is expected that work on the first homes will start in the first half of 2006.
A copy of the OJEU notice and a briefing pack are available from www.englishpartnerships.co.uk/designformanufacture or for further information