The framework has been developed by PfH Scotland - a procurement consortium of nearly 50 housing organisations that collectively manage 60 per cent of Scotland’s social housing stock.

The deal consists of ten national lots, allowing any housing association, co-operative or local authority housing department in Scotland to choose from tens of thousands of aids and adaptations, building materials, plumbing and heating materials, gas spares, renewable products, tiles, electrical items, stair lifts, tool and plant hire and maintenance services from national and local merchants.

For a large proportion of Scottish housing providers, buying materials for new build or repairs and maintenance projects accounts for over half their total spend.

This new framework has been designed to ensure strong local and national coverage. Appointed merchants have branches right across the country, ensuring that housing providers from all over Scotland can access materials easily.

The new deal will also guarantee stock supply, meaning that Scottish landlords are not exposed to the regional shortages and price increases that many have recently experienced. Member housing organisations will be prioritised by merchants and stock sourced from across the UK to meet deadlines and demand.

A number of the merchants who supplied products on PfH Scotland’s former materials framework have bid for this tender at a highly competitive rate due to the value generated from the previous deal. This has led to significantly reduced prices across all ten lots.

As a result of better prices, wider choice and new cost control measures, PfH Scotland estimates that the volume of spend going through the new materials deal will increase significantly over the next four years with more landlords starting to use the deal and existing framework customers increasing their spend.

Prices on the new framework are set either quarterly or annually and if suppliers increase prices then PfH Scotland will assist landlords to obtain justification and manage the impact. This process also helps suppliers as the evidence they present to justify price rises often helps landlords to see that there are genuine reasons behind cost increases.

Steve Malone, managing director of PfH Scotland, said: “Materials represents a huge spend area for social landlords and we’ve worked closely with merchants and manufacturers to create a framework that will offer strong geographic coverage to landlords and the opportunity to help them increase value for money so they can improve the service they provide to tenants. However, we also wanted the deal to work well for suppliers. There are examples of merchants on our previous deals seeing spend grow from nothing to £10 million in just five years. This new deal brings added flexibility and security for both suppliers and social landlords.”

Supply of plumbing and heating products for planned, new build, investment & repairs and maintenance works, including, but not limited to, full heating systems (boilers, radiators, water treatments, heating controls, cylinders, ), electric fires, associated heating spares, bathroom products, plumbing ancillaries, consumables and associated accessories.

Suppliers:

Supply of gas heating spares for domestic boilers and fires predominately for the maintenance and replacement of fitted heating systems.

Suppliers:

Supply of renewable products for planned, new build, investment and repairs and maintenance works. This constitutes of environmental-friendly, efficient and sustainable products such as Solar Panel Systems (Solar Thermal, Solar Voltaic, and Solar Cylinders), Heat Pumps (Ground Source and Air Source), Biomass Boilers, Underfloor Heating Solutions.

Suppliers:

Supply of general building materials for planned, new build, investment and repairs and maintenance works. Commodity areas covered include, but are not limited to; ironmongery, aggregates, paint, timber, fencing, adhesives, plaster, hardboard, tiles, garages, roofing, insulation, bricks, blocks, drainage, cement, and hardware.

Suppliers:

Supply of tiles and associate products for planned, new build, investment and repairs and maintenance works, predominantly for use in internal installation in kitchens and bathrooms distributed nationally.

Suppliers:

Supply of electrical materials for planned, new build, investment and repairs and maintenance works, including, but not limited to, circuit protection, electrical accessories, lighting, electric showers, fire & heat detection, cable, wiring, electric storage heaters and ventilation products.

Suppliers:

Supply of adapted items for planned, new build, investment and repairs and maintenance works, predominately for bathroom and kitchen adaptations, including, but not limited to, wet rooms, shower trays, adapted showers, brassware, mobility support and general disabled adaptations. Awarded suppliers provide a free of charge survey and design service to understand bespoke requirements.

Suppliers:

The design, supply and installation of stair lifts to ensure each product is tailor-made to the requirements of each individual property. Awarded suppliers also provide an after sales service and repairs facility within their warranty and can provide yearly maintenance services at competitive costs.

Suppliers:

The supply of tool and plant products for hire only. Products available to hire at daily and weekly rates include, but not are limited to, access, support and lifting products, fencing, sawing and cutting tools, generators and pumps, breaking and drilling equipment, cleaning products, electrical distribution, concreting equipment, plant machinery, heating and cooling products, lighting, surveying tools.

Suppliers:

The provision of bespoke supply and service requirements for both planned and reactive maintenance, including (but not limited to) the provision of plumbing, building, electrical products, stores solutions, van stock and delivery solutions.

Suppliers: