Re:allies is a new strategic collaboration of housing consortia representing Efficiency North (with St Leger Homes of Doncaster as the lead contracting authority), GM Procure (in association with Lancashire Housing Partnership and Cumbria Housing Partners), and North East Procurement, all meeting the needs of their various clients – primarily social housing landlords, who are located across the whole of the UK.

A groundbreaking achievement, this brings together, in one group, unmatched experience of building, regenerating and managing sustainable homes and environments, complemented by specialist organisations which are wholly focused on providing quality services that make a difference. Together, the members of Re:allies will apply their collective skills to the delivery of outstanding performance for their clients and, ultimately, the communities that they support through their member organisations.

The establishment of Re:allies offers a significant opportunity for social housing consortia to share best practice, undertake joint sourcing, promote schemes designed to improve local employment and reduce negative environmental impact. Jointly, the members of Re:allies are responsible for the repair and upkeep of over 800,000 properties across the North of England and have a remit to reinvest volume cost savings directly into local businesses, jobs and skills.

Innovative ways of working have led to the recent introduction of four-year frameworks for use by members, partners, customers and clients. As a leading example, materials will be required for installation works in various locations across the North of England for the following work streams: electrics; windows and doors; kitchens; heating; bathrooms; roofing and ancillary works; and other external works. Working collaboratively, the Re:allies consortium has recently launched a four-year materials framework to procure robust supply chains that deliver:

• Exceptional quality products at the very best commercial rates
• Products that are sustainable, fit for purpose, with a greater life cycle
• Materials that allow improved resident choice
• Suppliers that work in true partnership with the buyer and the installation teams
• Innovative and proactive suppliers that improve the supply process for tenants and landlord clients

Jed Turner, founder of Efficiency North, said: ‘Effective frameworks reduce the time and costs associated with the procurement of construction related services by offering a pre-tendered call off facility which saves time and costs associated with procurement. We are confident the new frameworks will provide demonstrable value for money. Having just been highly commended at the National Constructing Excellence Awards for the ‘Integration and Collaborative Working’ category, being part of the Re:allies consortium demonstrates that working together will result in positive benefits for both clients and supply chains.’

GM Procure Chief Executive Mike Brogan said: ‘As the largest procurement consortium for social landlords in the UK, GM Procure can attest to the wide spread of benefits to businesses, employers and tenants through efficient and socially responsible procurement. Our membership of Re:allies underlines our commitment to fair and responsible procurement with partner contractors and suppliers, which will help us realise meaningful regeneration projects in the communities of our member landlords.’

Ian Brimer, Chief Executive of North East Procurement, said: ‘We are confident that our collaboration with Efficiency North and GM Procure in the Re:allies consortium will help all parties continue to realise our shared objectives of cost efficiency benefits to social landlord and tenants, as well as involvement in community regeneration.’

1) Efficiency North

Efficiency North is a Housing Maintenance and Construction Best Practice Forum funded by the Department for Communities and Local Government's Beacon Peer Funding programme and the Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnership.

The annual programme of activities managed by Efficiency North include:

• Research Projects - developing specific projects in response to our Member requirements.
• Learning Events - exploring best practice approaches around our three core work streams and sharing them with our Members.
• Benchmarking Groups - developing benchmarking models and populating them with data from our Members to improve their understanding of cost and improve performance.
• Best Practice Publications - capturing best practice and developing White Papers, Toolkits and Case Studies which inform our Members and add value to their service improvement plans.
• Collaborative Procurement - identifying and facilitating opportunities for regional and cross regional collaborative procurement projects improving the performance and efficiency of our Member organisations.

Efficiency North is hosted by Sheffield City Council and is steered by a board of Asset Management Professionals from the following organisations:

• City of York Council
• City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council
• East North East Homes Limited
• East Riding of Yorkshire Council
• Hull City Council
• Leeds City Council
• Leeds Federated Housing Association Limited
• Rotherham 2010 Limited
• Selby District Council
• Sheffield City Council
• Sheffield Homes
• St Leger Homes, Doncaster
• Wakefield District Housing
• Yorkshire Housing

More information about Efficiency North can be found at: www.efficiencynorth.org
Contact:
Lee Parkinson
Project Director
Efficiency North
07800 962449

lee.parkinson@efficiencynorth.org

2) GM Procure

GM Procure was created in 2006 out of a need for fairer, more predictable pricing for both landlords and their supply chains. The consortium aims to give our members a vehicle for strategic cost, operation and quality management while stimulating regeneration within the communities in which our landlords operate. The success of GM Procure has provided reliable volumes of work for our material suppliers and installers, which in turn has given our landlords cost and programme benefits and a consistent approach to procurement. Tenants have benefited directly from streamlined high quality materials and market leading installation work on their homes.

By any measure this has been a successful partnership - we have enjoyed four buoyant years of trading, our job creation programmes and community enterprises are thriving, and we have met many of the objectives we set out to achieve.

More information can be found at: www.gmprocure.com
GM Procure Ltd.
Duckworth House
Lancastrian Office Centre
Talbot Road
Old Trafford
Manchester M32 0FP
Tel: 0303 030 0030

3) North East Procurement

North East Procurement is a not-for-profit organisation, established in 2008. We are a consortia of social housing providers with stock in the North East of England. Our 12 members own and manage in the region of 100,000 properties.

NEP aims to deliver sustainable efficiencies through collaborative procurement and related strategies. As a consortia, our clients will leverage their volume and expenditure in order to achieve this.

Simultaneously, NEP aims to regenerate local employment and maintain community involvement, including trainee and apprenticeship schemes. We aim to ensure that with every £1m of works spent, two new trainees will be employed, and we actively work with our members to locate any funding to further encourage more local training programmes. Savings made through efficiency gains will be invested in these social responsibilities. More information about NEP can be found at: www.northeastprocurement.com, or you can email any queries to info@neprocurement.com