About Us

Who is the National Change Agent for Social Housing Capital Works?

NCA Housing is managed by Davis Langdon in association with Trowers and Hamlins. They won the contract through an OJEU procurement competition.

Davis Langdon provides a wide range of management and consulting services to public sector and housing clients. Trowers & Hamlins are a law firm who work extensively in the housing and procurement sectors.

Our Team

Colin Proctor, NCA Housing Programme Manager and Partner at Davis Langdon

Colin is a chartered surveyor with extensive experience of working at a senior level across the public and private sectors. With regard to the public sector Colin has worked with a number of Scottish Executive departments, related agencies and non-departmental public bodies; covering the areas of health, education, schools, cultural, transport, housing, leisure, justice, prisons, infrastructure, and heritage. 

John Connaughton, Partner at Davis Langdon

John has over 25 years construction consulting experience.  John is the partner responsible for our consulting work in the areas of Sustainability, Business Improvement and Innovation Management. John’s work has covered a wide range of construction consulting experience, including the management of a major improvement programme for public sector property and construction functions, for the Office of Government Commerce.

Hilda Chagula, Senior Consultant at Davis Langdon

Hilda  has over 20 years construction procurement and project management experience  as both an Architect, and senior service manager for construction related services in the public sector.

Adrian Jackson-Robbins, Senior Consultant at Davis Langdon

Adrian has 38 years experience in the construction industry covering a wide range of roles and responsibilities, including management of all aspects of the construction process from both contractor and client perspectives.

Tamsin Virdi, Consultant at Davis Langdon

Tamsin has extensive work experience in the social housing sector, including the role as client side new build project manager for a leading RSL.

John Forde, Lawyer at Trowers & Hamlins

John specialises in advising commercial clients and local government bodies on non-contentious construction law. He negotiates and drafts building and engineering contracts and professional appointments.  He advises on partnering agreements in relation to social housing projects and on public sector procurement and EU procurement.

Katie Saunders, Partner at Trowers & Hamlins

Katie specialises in advising clients on non-contentious construction law issues.  She has extensive experience in negotiating and drafting strategic framework agreements for large scale construction projects, building and engineering contracts, professional appointments and development agreements.

David Mosey, Partner at Trowers & Hamlins

David  is head of the Projects and Construction Group of Trowers & Hamlins with extensive experience in the affordable housing sector.  In addition to his NCA Housing responsibilities, he has advised numerous social landlords on implementation of Decent Homes programmes and creation of innovative procurement and supply chain structures. 

What is a ‘change agent’?

Change agents, or specialist support teams, are the bodies who will help to deliver change in the sector through their expertise and experience.

Within local government, the Regional Centres for Excellence are the principal change agents, to disseminate best practice, promote partnerships, and act as a focus for procurement consortia.

Some national change agents will support local and regional bodies by offering expertise in particular areas. The National Change Agent for social housing procurement is one of these. It will provide specialist support, including standard documentation and advice on structures and models for setting up consortia.

What is the relationship between the Regional Centres of Excellence and the NCA Housing?

NCA Housing will work closely with each of the nine Centres of Excellence to ensure the right links are made between housing and other local authority procurement initiatives at regional level.

What are the main areas with potential for efficiency gains in social housing?

The DCLG (formerly ODPM) has identified the potential for gains in:

• reduced costs and/or more for the same in procurement of materials, project management and labour,
• greater reliability and predictability of work, and
• greater tenant satisfaction.

But all organisations should look at their own circumstances.

How could local procurement consortia help?

Consortia could so some or all of the following:

• secure better deals through greater purchasing power
• 'work-smoothing' of the capital works programmes of member organisations into a package over several years, providing clear demand signals to the supply market to avoid overheating of the market
• provide certainty of demand for selected firms, enabling them to grow their business and maximise efficiencies
• manage the supply chain more efficiently using a partnering approach
• enable collective purchase of labour for capital works projects
• work with suppliers and training bodies to provide construction jobs for local job seekers, including from disadvantaged groups, expanding the restricted local labour pool

What value of efficiency gains could be made by consortia?

One model for such consortia is Fusion 21, based in Merseyside, which reports that it has delivered net savings of at least 7.5%, and much more in some areas.

But we are open to proposals for a variety of different models for consortia, with different legal relationships between the partners and different models of procurement.

How many consortia are expected to be formed?

We are aiming for around 25 consortia, primarily sub-regional, spread across the country, responsible for a significant part of the annual social housing capital works expenditure.

But we are not being prescriptive and will want to see what proposals come forward.

What is the Efficiency Challenge Fund?

The DCLG Efficiency Challenge Fund has been put in place to offer financial assistance towards the set up costs of new procurement consortia. Setting up a consortium has costs which may not be paid back in efficiency gains for some time and DCLG believe that there is need for some early support.

The financial assistance will be in the form of grants, which will be awarded in two stages as follows:

• Stage 1: Business Planning Grant - this is awarded to enable a forming consortium to complete a detailed business plan which explores the potential for procurement efficiency gains.
• Stage 2: Implementation Grant - this is awarded to assist in the implementation of the business plan and thereby realise the efficiency savings.

Who can bid for the money?

It is open to all social landlords - RSLs, ALMOs and LAs. We will also welcome bids from consortia which include a mix of different types of social landlords.

Who will make the decisions on bids for assistance from the Efficiency Challenge Fund – DCLG or the NCA?

DCLG. The NCA will administer the fund and give advice to DCLG, but final decisions will be for the Department.

Is there a deadline for applications?

No. Applications will be considered at any time, though fund arrangements will be reviewed after they have been operating for a time and therefore the arrangements may change.

Where can I get more information on the Efficiency Challenge Fund and how to apply?

Bidding guidance is published on this website. NCA Housing will also provide more advice on this for those who are interested in applying.

Isn’t ‘efficiency’ really about making cuts in services?

No, this is about achieving more and better results for the same level of resources. It's about "more from the same". All the savings will be retained by the social landlords and can be used to make further improvements.

What value of efficiency gains do you expect social landlords to secure?

DCLG expect the social housing sector to achieve £835million efficiency gains by 2007/08, including £340m from capital works.

So are all organisations expected to make the same gains?

No. Neither DCLG nor NCA Housing are setting individual targets. But all organisations should look to improve efficiency as part of continuous improvement.

How will efficiency be measured?

The principles for measuring efficiency gains will be set out in the Social Housing Efficiency Technical Note (ETN), published by DCLG. But we do not intend to be prescriptive. All organisations will use self-assessment to report their own efficiencies. This is not a bureaucratic exercise – it’s about good performance management within front-line organisations.

The aim is to use, as far as possible, data which is already collected for other statutory, regulatory and performance management purposes.