The London housing association has just gone out to tender for a £1.5bn framework that will run for 15 years.

It said the decision had been taken to appoint a wider range of main contractors covering its four London regions – north, central, east and west.

Katie Bond, chief operating officer at NHG, said that the move was designed to drive healthy competition to improve standards, move repairs between contractors in the event of delays or bring contractors in from another region to speeds up response. times.

Each region has around 10,000 homes and has roughly 40,000 repairs ordered per year. Each region will have an expected annual spend of £10m and each contractor may be limited to a maximum is two regions.

The total estimated framework value is based on NHG’s projected spend of £600m over the next 15 years, with an allowance for third-party call-offs entered into under the framework, estimated at £900m.

NHG also plans to introduce a small in-house team of multi-skilled operatives, who may be based in areas where there are most homes.

The change in delivery strategy comes after 1,500 residents were surveyed about the repair service. More than 800 included repairs being completed on the first visit among their top three priorities.

Other priorities were contractors arriving on time and how they communicate with residents.

Bond said: “We know how important it is to get our repairs service right and we were committed to putting residents at the heart of our new approach.

“We are excited to start this process and hear from the many contractors we know will be keen to work with us and meet the high standards we will be demanding.”

Contractors have until Friday 14 February to return applications available here.