Decision details

To seek authority for the procurement of Harrow’s delivery partner following the successful Harrow Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund grant bid to enable the delivery of energy efficiency measures and authorise Harrow’s 2-year capital contribution to the programme.

Having agreed to note the confidential appendices to the officer report, Cabinet

RESOLVED:  That

(1)            the Department for Energy Security and Net-Zero (DESNZ) 2-year spend profile as set out in Appendix 2 to the officer report, which had been submitted to central government together with the Grant Funding Agreement, be approved, noting that the spend profile outlined how the Council would deliver the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) programme to March 2025 across a minimum of 226 homes, incorporating the required approval request to add the £2.147m additional Grant received into the HRA capital programme, specified by DESNZ as £917k in 2023/24 and £1.230m in 2024/25;

(2)            the DESNZ specified procurement requirement for the Harrow SHDF programme which incorporated the required delegated authority for the DESNZ mandatory process approval and identification of the Council’s delivery partner, completing SHDF milestone 1 of the programme, be approved, noting that direct appointment will be made to the highest-ranked contractor on LOT 1 of the pre-evaluated framework on the specialist Fusion 21 decarbonisation framework; and

(3)            the Corporate Director of Place, following consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Housing, Portfolio Holder for Finance and Human Resources and the Director of Finance, be authorised to finalise the award of contract.

Reason for Decision:  To enable the Council to:

·                 Meet critical Harrow climate emergency directives and central government energy efficiency targets contributing to the roadmap to Net Zero, by achieving a minimum EPC rating of C using a fabric-first approach across all homes on the SHDF wave 2.1 programme.

·                 Meet all statutory delivery milestones set by DESNZ for the specified delivery window for implementation, as set out in Table 9 of the bid.

·                 Meet the spend profile requirement as set out by DESNZ – in Annex 6 of the Grant Funding Agreement (GFA) which stipulated 42.7% of the Grant Funding it received in the 2023-24 Financial Year and 57.3% in 2024/25. 

[Note:  Councillor David Perry left the room for the discussion and vote on this item].