MOD launches facilities contracts for English regions

Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) has unveiled its plans for the future provision of facilities management across the English regions, and has begun inviting industry to submit expressions of interest in three new regional prime contracts.

Developed under the Next Generation Estate Contracts (NGEC) programme, the contracts have an estimated combined value of up to £4.35 billion over a minimum of five years and a maximum of 10 years. Individual contract values range between £500m and £1.8 billion, depending on potential contract extensions.

The contracts are:

• Regional Prime Central (North of England, Wales, the Midlands and East Anglia)
• Regional Prime South West (Southwest England)
• Regional Prime South East (Southeast England)

The successful bidders will provide maintenance and repairs to the Defence estate. Other services will include a 24/7 helpdesk for estate-users, a regional energy management bureau, grounds maintenance, and snow and ice clearance. Each contract also includes options for land management services and construction projects valued below £3.93m.

Major sites covered by the contracts include:

• Central – Catterick Garrison, Beacon Barracks Stafford, RAF Shawbury and RAF Valley training bases, DST Leconfield, Wattisham Airfield, RAF College Cranwell, and the intelligence and security centre at Chicksands
• South East – RMA Sandhurst, DMRC Headley Court, HQ Land Forces Andover, Hyde Park Barracks, Woolwich Barracks, Horse Guards, RAF High Wycombe and RAF Northolt
• South West – various Royal Marines bases, RNAS Yeovilton, RNAS Culdrose, Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) headquarters

Regional Prime Central will replace two separate regional prime contracts – RPC Central and RPC East – currently in service. The other two contracts will replace arrangements over comparable geographical areas.

The new contracts are expected to be awarded in early 2014.

Steve Rice, the NGEC programme director, said:

“Supporting our Armed Forces as they prepare for operations is the top priority for DIO, and the stewardship of first-class facilities is central to fulfilling that aim. In each of these regions we are determined to find the right industry partner to manage these facilities to the standards expected by our military customers. Successful bidders need to be armed with innovative ideas and a willingness to respond flexibly to the evolving needs of the Defence frontline.”

Gill Hodson, senior NGEC project manager, said:

“This is an important milestone in the NGEC programme with our foremost regional prime contract – for Scotland and Northern Ireland – having paved the way for procurement of the remaining three regional contracts. We look forward to widening our procurement work across these three regions for England and Wales, and hope the contracts will generate a healthy response from supply chain businesses and prime contractors alike.”

Under the NGEC programme, all prime contractors will be required to operate project bank accounts (PBAs), ensuring prompt payment to all suppliers and subcontractors.

Contract notices have been issued to the Tender Electronic Daily (TED) service (ted.europa.eu) under the Official Journal of the European (OJEU), the Government Contracts Finder, and the Defence Contracts Online (DCO) facility. It is expected that these will be published in the next few days.

The closing date for expressions of interest is 23:59hrs on 23 March 2012.

Following expressions of interest DIO will issue Pre-Qualification Questionnaires, and host an industry day at a venue and date to be confirmed.

ENDS

Further information:

Press enquiries to Tony Moran, Senior Communications Officer   0121 311 3879or email tony.moran572@mod.uk

Defence internet – NGEC programme: http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/MicroSite/DIO/WhatWeDo/NextGenerationEstateContracts.htm

Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU): http://ted.europa.eu/TED/main/HomePage.do

Contracts Finder: www.contractsfinder.businesslink.gov.uk

Defence Contracts Online: www.contracts.mod.uk

Notes to editors

1. Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) is part of the Ministry of Defence (MOD). It is responsible for managing and maintaining land and properties to meet the current and future needs of the MOD and personnel at home and abroad, and to support current operations. 

2. Our work includes providing, supporting and improving: operational units; single living and service family accommodation; training areas and historic military sites. DIO actively manages these to ensure the needs of Defence are met, value for money is achieved, our heritage is protected and to achieve our environmental goals.

3. DIO was formed on 1 April 2011 when the former Defence Estates (DE) organisation was brought together with other property and infrastructure functions within department to form a single organisation. DIO manages the MOD’s property infrastructure and ensures strategic management of the Defence estate as a whole.

4. The Defence estate is valued at approximately £15.3 billion, spanning 240,000 hectares and 45,000 buildings.

5. The Next Generation Estate Contracts (NGEC) Programme is developing a new suite of contracts for the UK Defence estate, comprising four Regional Prime contracts for hard facilities management, one national and six regional Capital Works Frameworks for construction projects, a National Housing Prime contract, and the National Training Estate Prime contract. The contracts are estimated to be worth between £500m and £600m per annum, and more than £5 billion over 10 years, exclusive of construction projects.

6. The Regional Prime Central is valued at between £800m and £1.8 billion over a minimum of five years and a maximum of 10 years. It will replace the current Regional Prime Contract Central (Northern England, the Midlands and Wales) and Regional Prime Contract East (East Midlands), and is expected to be awarded in early 2014.

7. The Regional Prime South East is valued at between £500m and £1.2 billion over a minimum of five years and a maximum of 10 years. It will replace the current Regional Prime Contract South East, and is expected to be awarded in early 2014.

8. The Regional Prime South West is valued at between £600m and £1.35 billion over a minimum of five years and a maximum of 10 years. It will replace the current Regional Prime Contract South West, and is expected to be awarded in early 2014.

9. Since the original NGEC timetable was published in August 2010 – with a target of replacing the existing UK estate contracts from April 2013 – a number of emerging factors have impacted on the procurement schedule. These include the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), the creation of DIO and the high degree of industry interest shown by industry which led to the evaluation process taking longer than planned. DIO wants to ensure that all NGEC stakeholders – including staff, current contractors, DIO customers and wider industry – have a realistic expectation of the achievable timeframe for these contracts. It is therefore reviewing the NGEC programme timetable to ensure that it reflects the evolving and complex circumstances in which these contracts are being procured.

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