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We can’t agree more that the built environment plays an essential role in the public sector. After all, we can’t do without the contractors responsible for building our schools, hospitals, roads, and homes. However, it becomes imperative for us to make sure that the construction works are carried out dutifully, and most sustainably. Payal Singhal, Marketing and Communications Officer at LHC-LSE speaks to our newly appointed Regional Manager for London and Southeast, Boby Singh to learn more about the challenges within the public sector procurement and the vital role LHC plays in finding solutions to these challenges.

Q. 2 months into your new role as the Regional Manager for the London and Southeast region, how has your experience been so far?

Boby: My experience working with LHC Procurement Group has been very meaningful since the beginning of my career and it’s satisfying to be able to return to a not-for-profit organisation that is on a mission to improve lives and places in local communities through its quality procurement solutions.

It’s great to see LHCPG growing even more during my absence in the last 18 months and to be back just around the time when the group is celebrating a huge milestone by delivering £530 million worth of construction and refurbishment projects. It’s a very exciting time for me to once again be part of the LHCPG with greater responsibilities this time, by leading the client support function of the London and Southeast region, and a passion to make a difference to the local communities and improve lives.

Q. What role do you think LHC plays in the Public Sector and how do you think you can support and contribute to this?

Boby: Specialising in the construction and refurbishment industry, LHC provides public sector organisations with regional and quality-led framework solutions to help them achieve value for money for their procurement of works and make a positive impact within our local communities.

As a Regional Manager, my role is to lead and develop our Client Support function and be a prime contact in the London and Southeast region for our Clients, Appointed Companies, and industry bodies. This means working with our existing team to promote our framework solutions as well as our added value services for both technical and procurement services. I will also be contributing to LHCPG to help and explore wider public sector opportunities and build long-term partnerships with organisations throughout London & Southeast to make a positive social impact within our communities.

Q. What do you think are the challenges being faced in public-sector housing?

Boby: One of the biggest reported barriers our clients, including councils and social housing landlords, face is the increased costs that come with retrofitting existing and new homes, such as providing added solutions for fire safety, energy efficiency, and damp & mould. These upgrades are taking up most of the available funding/budget as well as other resources that would otherwise be allocated to building new housing.

Q. How do you think LHC can help find a solution to these challenges?

Boby: With the limited funding and budgets available to councils and social housing landlords, the importance of value for money has become a key focus for our clients.

Therefore, LHC has invested in its added value services, including procurement/call-off services and technical support services, as well as pre-tender engagement sessions with clients, manufacturers, suppliers, external consultants, and other industry leaders. This helps us to come up with robust frameworks such as the recently launched Fire Safety (FS2) framework, Refurbishment, and Modernisation (RM3) framework, Asset Safety & Compliance (ASC1) framework, and the upcoming Retrofit and Decarbonisation framework (N9) that will ultimately allow our clients to directly achieve value for money when upgrading their existing social housing stock for issues such as fire safety, energy efficiency, and damp & mould.

The added value services of procurement/call-off and technical support services will eventually take a lot of the workload away from the clients and hence give them more time and resources to focus on New Housing Development programmes.

Q. We have recently launched our RM3 (Refurbishment and Modernisation) framework. What message would you like to give to our public sector clients on the benefits of using this framework? What makes this framework so unique?

Boby: This framework provides public sector organisations with an efficient, value-for-money procurement route to deliver important refurbishment, improvement, and modernisation works that ensure their buildings are well maintained and improve the lives of tenants and occupants within them.

Key features of RM3:

• Provides equal opportunities for suppliers of all sizes to promote local economic development.
• Ability to deliver work in a domestic and non-domestic setting.
• Flexible approach allowing additional works to be procured through multi-disciplinary lots.
• Appointment of companies that can support Partners in delivering social value and community benefits.

Q. What are the other frameworks launching this year?

Boby: It is going to be an exciting year for LHC Procurement Group as through the pre-tender engagement sessions we have made lots of improvements on our upcoming frameworks to make them the best procurement routes in the market. These new frameworks are:

1. Aluminium Windows and Doors (A8)              
2. Energy Efficiency and Decarbonisation (N9)
3. Architecture Design Services Framework (ADS2)

Q. Finally, what message would you give to your clients? Why should clients choose to work with LHC?

Boby: Over the years LHC has improved & evolved its value-added services for its clients but one thing that has stayed the same throughout its entire history is our Client Support Team and the fact that there is a central and single point of contact for our clients that they can rely on throughout the life cycle of their project.

Here at LHCPG, we have dedicated Client Support Managers local to our clients. Paige Kent covering Greater London, Yanni Massouras covering Northern Home Counties, Western Home Counties and myself managing Southern Home Counties. I firmly believe together we can assist our clients meet their project objectives as well as their strategic procurement objectives.    

If you would like to speak to a member of our client support team or our Regional Manager Boby Singh, then please click here.