Decision details

Reason(s) for the Decision:

A procurement process has been adopted which has resulted in only one tender being submitted. There is insufficient time to attempt another procurement exercise as the consultant needs to be starting work on the bid as soon as possible. There is insufficient time for the matter to be reported to Committee.
Information:
The Council has been successful in a bid for Stage 1 of Future High Streets Fund, and has been awarded £100,000 of revenue to work up the required Business Case for the Stage 2 bid. The bid for Stage 2 includes required Value for Money (VFM) information, Strategic Fit and Deliverability (the economic case), which forms the assessment criteria. The Consultants we wish to appoint have evidenced that they have the required skills in their bid.
A procurement exercise was undertaken with four companies approached to bid for this work but only one responded; Inner Circle. They have relevant experience from first round Stage 2 bids that have to be completed by early January 2020 and have learnt lessons from their meetings with MHCLG Delivery Managers who advise on these.
Following negotiation they have agreed a fixed fee of £47,200 for Phase 1 to work up the Business Case to a draft submission in March 2020. This draft bid will receive feedback from MHCLG following submission and the work in Phase 2 will be dependent on this. They have agreed to carry out this Phase 2 work based on hourly rates with a cap of £25,200.
Inner Circle will produce a Strategic Outline Case and an Economic Case that will show optimum VFM, a commercial case showing delivery options, a financial case and a management case that will demonstrate that the projects selected are deliverable. They will also carry out a Community Impact Assessment to ensure that the selected projects strengthen the town, and surrounding area, from an economic and social perspective.
The delivery programme provided with their bid shows that they have the resource and capacity to deliver the Outline Business Case within the timescales set, and that they have the required experience to ensure that the information will be that required by central government.
Under the Council’s Contract procedure rules, it is a requirement for contracts of this value to be the subject of three tenders. As set out above, the Council has not attracted that level of interest and so Contract Procedure Rules need to be waived to enable the appointment to take place.
The Contract Procedure Rules state that certain officers can waive the requirements of the CPR where the value is less than £40,000. Where the value exceeds that level, it is necessary to obtain approval from Strategy and Resources committee. Where the decision is urgent however, the constitution provides that the CEX can take the decision.
In this case, the appointment needs to be made as soon as possible to enable the appointed consultant to take part in discussions with the government next week. There is therefore insufficient time to report this matter to committee.
This work will be funded through revenue granted to North Devon Council by the Future High Street Fund.

To instruct Inner Circle as the consultants to prepare our Business Case for the Stage 2 bid of Future High Streets Fund.

A procurement exercise was carried out and the tender document sent out to 4 companies. This resulted in a single bid, above the threshold for a Request for Waiver.
Specialist advice, not available internally, is needed to prepare a Business Case for submission under the Future High Streets Fund to potentially secure up to £25m for the town centre of Barnstaple.
The Business Case needs to be prepared in draft for submission in March 2020, with the first meeting with the MHCLG Delivery Manager scheduled for 21 November 2019. MHCLG have made clear that appointed consultants should be present at that meeting. The programme timetable does not allow for delay. The re-procurement of this work would result in further delay that could prejudice the quality of our submission.

Draft Barnstaple Vision Report:

https://northdevon.gov.uk/media/379530/barnstaple-baseline-document-rev_b_190617.pdf