John Rowan and Partners provided pre and post-contract services for the delivery of 70 affordable units. We were involved from the early stages, negotiations of the contract and package price. This included early on site valuation of works to determine the value for the Golden Brick payment proposed. In conjunction with Network Housing Group’s solicitors, we prepared all employers requirements and specification information to incorporate into the contract documents and provided all post-contract services, including valuation payments, agreement of variations and hosting stakeholder meetings for key project stages, carrying out progress inspections. We co-ordinated all snagging in preparation for the final de-snag and completion inspections.

A previous developer on the scheme had gone into administration, we then worked with Network’s team to exchange contracts in 6 weeks in order to meet grant funding and programme requirements. As it was a number of years before a new developer took on the site, the finishes specifications in the original contract were quite dated. Through our robust negotiations we secured a much improved finish to the specifications, exceeding expectation. We carried out a valuation of the works completed by the previous developer to determine a value for money initial “golden brick” payment for Network Housing Group. The Funding criteria had moved on since the project had commenced, but since the frame was already constructed this limited the scope for design change. We secured agreement from the developer to meet design changes key to the larger social rented units and held several design meetings with NHG and the developer to try to capitalise on and improve internal layouts.

The nature of the developer’s procurement and management arrangements raised a few challenges for NHG, we worked on addressing these by securing project meetings specifically to communicate what was needed on the affordable housing element of the works.