Getting regeneration schemes off the ground can be a song and dance for councils going through lengthy tendering processes. Austin Macauley lifts the curtain in Inside Housing on how Westminster is re-writing the script by creating a panel of pre-qualified developers that are ready to perform.

The words ‘regeneration’ and ‘delay’ are often inseparable. But Westminster Council rounded off last year with an announcement that, it claimed, would break this link and speed up its £400 million housing regeneration programme.

In short, it involves the creation of a panel of eight developers which will bid for projects within the borough’s four renewal areas over the next four years. The value of work on offer could rise to around £900 million if neighbouring Hammersmith & Fulham and Kensington and Chelsea councils use the panel for their own projects.

The panel ‘will avoid long-winded and costly tendering processes for each project, which would inevitably prove more expensive for taxpayers and cause long delays to the works getting underway’, according to Jonathan Glanz, Westminster’s cabinet member for housing and property.

Read the rest of the article - extract above from Inside Housing…