Whilst we wouldn’t presume to comment on the impact on the Act for the wider Public Sector: every sub-sector will have its own drivers, for Social Housing this 5 month pause is an opportunity.
For many Registered Providers of Social Housing, specifically those with less than 40,000 homes, the new Act brings little to the table except significant additional administrative and cost burden.
The removal of sub-threshold awards in Dynamic Markets and the re-classification of rolling contracts as being automatically above threshold will leave most small and medium RP’s paying more for the same services (usually compliance related). In our sector contractors often have considerably more market power than their clients. As a matter of policy, many suppliers will immediately terminate a contract and walk away as soon as performance issues are raised, so the Act’s new performance and contract management regime is close to meaningless.
From a small to medium Housing Association’s perspective, postponement of the Act provides a unique opportunity to legitimately run procurements under the PCR 2015 for all contracts that expire at any point up to at least the end of Q1 next FY. If there is a mobilisation period and or TUPE associated with the the new contract, then this can reasonably be extended to the end of Q2. All you must do is commence your compliant procedure on the last working day prior to the new Act coming into force, which is currently Friday 21st February 2025, although many commentators believe a further extension to align with the start of the new FY is likely.
If you’re a small to medium RP, take a good look at your pipeline, work out what contracts expire or have breaks before next autumn and think hard about where taking advantage of the pause can benefit you.