Developed with contracting authority Abri, on behalf of The Greener Futures Partnership (GFP), the seven-year framework has been designed to ensure that homes achieve the energy efficiency standard for social housing.

GFP was set up by five housing associations – Abri, Anchor, Home Group, Hyde Group and Sanctuary – in 2021, as its members believed that a joint effort would be more effective in helping the social housing sector seriously address the green agenda. Between them they have a combined stock of over 300,000 homes and represent 9% of the total social housing market. GFP partners won all three bids submitted in SHDF wave one in England and Wales with local authorities, securing £5.2m of grant funding for 461 properties, as well as successfully bidding for a further £40.4m in SHDF wave two, through a joint consortium bid including all five partners.

Rose Bean, director of assets and sustainability at Abri and chair of the GFP Executive Committee said: “The aim of the framework was to create a sector-leading route to market with a truly collaborative approach, where all parties contributed and continually developed best practice.

“Through sharing resources and collaborative procurement, not only was GFP able to save money, remove duplication and speed up delivery, but it was also able to consider a wide range of ideas from five diverse organisations, which wouldn’t have happened if its members had worked in isolation.

“The end result is a truly sustainable framework, which will allow users and contractors to build and maintain relationships to deliver decarbonisation for the long term, keeping pace with innovation in the sector.”

The multi-lot, multi-supplier framework, covers Scotland, with a separate parallel framework for England and Wales. It has been designed with flexibility in mind to enable organisations large and small to deliver a full range of retrofit works through a one-stop-shop solution.

The procurement process was collaborative from start to finish, with all partners involved at every stage, and documentation was co-produced with Echelon Consultancy, which procured the framework.

Jessica John, director of framework partnerships at Pretium Frameworks, said: “We’re delighted to be launching this much-needed new framework for the delivery of decarbonisation works and services, which provides the perfect vehicle for supporting the housing sector in Scotland to tackle the sustainability challenge and meet the energy efficiency standard for social housing.

“We’ve already had a great deal of interest in the decarbonisation delivery framework for England and Wales, which launched last month, and there is a real buzz around this framework.

“We expect to hit the ground running, as Registered Social Landlords work to meet sustainability targets and bring their stock up to standard.”

The framework is split into three workstreams, two delivering construction works across different value bands and one delivering professional services, covering all roles specified under PAS 2035, as follows: