Executive Compass have supported clients bidding for contracts with nearly every housing association across the UK, including Clarion Housing, Guinness Partnership, Notting Hill Genesis, Places for People, Riverside Group and many more.
Informed by our extensive experience, we share our tips below on how to write a high-quality, competitive bid for housing association tenders.
Types of housing association tenders
As with public sector authorities, housing associations oversee tender exercises across a range of sectors and industries. With over six million residents living in housing association properties in England alone, common examples of housing association tenders include:
- Communal cleaning services, involving cleaning of internal and external elements of housing association properties
- Grounds maintenance, including grass cutting, tree surgery and removal of weeds and invasive species, such as Japanese knotweed
- Security services involving manned guarding, car park and communal security, keyholding and concierge services
- Facilities management, including repairs and maintenance, gas servicing and maintenance, mechanical and electrical works and fire safety systems
- Voids repairs and maintenance, ensuring void properties meet the Decent Homes Standard outlined by the central government.
With such a wide range of opportunities, housing association contracts are a key market to break into for organisations looking to expand their business and increase revenue.
Common tendering topics for housing association tenders
Each tender is different, ranging from as little as 1,000 words up to 20,000–25,000 words for high-value submissions or those split into different lots. Each buyer has different objectives and priority areas they would like the bid to reflect and for suppliers to be mindful of over the contract term.
However, based on our experience supporting with hundreds of housing association submissions, we have identified the topics and themes which can reasonably be expected as part of a quality submission.
Customer service and resident satisfaction
Housing associations place a premium on ensuring their residents get value for money from work or services. Consequently, the questions will revolve around how you will provide a high-quality service or the measures taken to achieve high satisfaction ratings. Remember, feedback and complaints are likely to be closely monitored over the contract term.
To achieve a high-scoring response, you should include details of your proposed resident liaison team, in addition to methods of communication and how you will gather feedback to support a continuously improving service.
Dealing with vulnerable residents
According to data provided by the central government, more than 25% of new social housing lettings are assigned to ‘vulnerable households with a priority need’. This can include individuals who are experiencing homelessness, have a physical or mental disability or are living in unsanitary, unsatisfactory or overcrowded conditions. Approximately 8% of housing association renters were born outside the UK or Republic of Ireland – meaning that considerations must also be made for residents whose first language is not English.
To demonstrate your processes for dealing with vulnerable residents, relevant bid responses should include the following:
- Adjustments made to service delivery for vulnerable residents, such as the elderly or those with a disability
- Special considerations for visits to tenanted properties – for example, two-handed visits or accommodating requests for a female operative to perform works
- Safeguarding training received by operatives and staff, ensuring they understand how to spot potential signs of abuse or neglect
- Arrangements for communicating with individuals who speak limited English, such as automated translation and letters provided in other languages (e.g. Polish or Urdu).
Providing added value
Value for money is a central element of any tender exercise, as evidenced by its inclusion as one of the central objectives of the Procurement Act 2023. Regardless of the industry or sector, examples of added value you may choose to consider include:
- Performing additional small services not outlined in the specification – for example, daily cleaning of communal areas for a security services or manned guarding contract
- Planned preventative maintenance to extend the natural life cycle of housing association components or assets, such as boilers for individual properties
- Bettering timescales or programme dates outlined by the authority, allowing greater capacity for works to be completed.
Innovative and modern methods of providing added value are always received favourably by housing associations, who are conscious of budget constraints.
Client portal and job management system
With thousands of properties, assets and residents to keep track of, housing associations prioritise contractors with strong administrative capacity and IT solutions. In many instances, they will request that bidders have a job or works management system which permits ‘real-time’ access via a portal, allowing them to monitor status of works and updates.
Equally, a tender question may ask about bidders’ ability to integrate with an existing system, software or CAFM solution. This requires knowledge of data transfer, migration and ability to interface with different file formats.
Social value for housing association tenders
Housing associations are not-for-profit groups, meaning that there is no profit for shareholders and any surplus budget is reinvested into the organisation. There is also an underlying ethos inherent to most housing associations, centred around creating a fairer, more inclusive and equal society.
This emphasis on an ethical, values-driven approach often means social value counts for a large percentage of the evaluation criteria – in some instances, up to 20% of the overall weighting.
Examples of tailored, targeted social value initiatives for housing association tenders include:
- Training, apprenticeship and employment opportunities for housing association residents, prioritising vulnerable groups or those who have been long-term unemployed
- Donations or in-kind contributions to community projects, including litter clean-ups or allotments on premises
- Environmental commitments, such as reducing carbon emissions, maximising recycling/reuse rates and clean-ups to enhance green spaces on housing association properties
- Volunteering hours at local third-sector organisations, charities or initiatives run by the authority – for example, the Places Foundation Group charity run by Places for People.
As always, with social value commitments and initiatives, it is crucial that commitments are targeted, tangible and proportionate to the overall value of the contract. Make sure to include measures on monitoring, measuring and reporting progress against social value commitments to demonstrate oversight and administration for delivering against initiatives.
Bidding for housing association tenders
We have previously supported with hundreds of housing association submissions, with an 85% success rate across PQQ, SQ and ITT tenders demonstrating our competency and capability. The breadth of the bid and tender services we offer ensures that, regardless of the size of your organisation or experience bidding for contracts, we can integrate seamlessly with your business to provide a bespoke, tailored and targeted submission.
If you would like to enquire about our bid writing, bid review or bid training courses, our sales and marketing teams are available today for further discussion and a free, no-obligation quotation at info@executivecompass.co.uk or 0800 612 5563.