25 firms to share in £600m London housing repair deal

The London Area Procurement Network (LAPN) has signed framework agreements totalling up to £600m with more than 25 contractors, which it claims will save millions of pounds on housing maintenance contracts over the coming five years.

LAPN is a procurement consortium for 10 London Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) and is being billed as one of the largest and most ambitious efficiency initiatives on housing maintenance ever attempted by local government.

Gordon Perry, LAPN's chairman, said that with contractors now on board across "vital procurement workstreams", the organisation can "push ahead with plans to save London's ALMOs £60m or more on major works programmes over the next five years".

He called the initiative "very big and very complex - it has taken nearly three years of hard work to get to this point. But there is already £42m of works agreed for this year and this will grow substantially from next year onwards".

The 10 LAPN members are: Ascham Homes (Waltham Forest); Barnet Homes; Brent Housing Partnership; CityWest Homes (Westminster); Ealing Homes; Hammersmith & Fulham Homes; Hillingdon Homes; Hounslow Homes; Kensington & Chelsea TMO; and Sutton Housing Partnership.

The ALMOs manage a total of more than 175,000 council homes across London.