A special panel of individually sourced suppliers and experts designed to speed up major projects as been used to procure around 40,000 homes worth a staggering £5.5 billion.
Five years later the panel is going from strength to strength now covering the entire country and a total of 43 developers signed up.
Meeting demand for housing in England is an on-going challenge especially in difficult times, such as economic instability. Any help to speed up the process, which can be long and protracted, is hugely helpful. The Delivery Partner Panel (DPP) is specifically designed to speed up the procurement process for major house building projects.
Its original objective was to help kickstart the market during the downturn in 2010, but the DPP has proved to be much more than that and continues to provide a unique support system for public sector development.
For example, some of our public sector partners are experienced in development but others less so. That really is the beauty of the panel as we have already taken care of prequalification stages of the procurement process so partners have the reassurance that their chosen developer is up to the task and has the experience to deliver. For us, development is the day job but for some of our partners development is something they might only do once every ten years or so.
The panel provides a well-trodden path to getting a developer on board.
Partnership working is key to its success
The DPP is a fairly unique product. Although it’s run and managed by the HCA, over half the development procured through the panel is actually done by a wide array of public sector partners from local authorities and registered providers to NHS trusts and other government departments. One of the more innovative ways the panel has been used is by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation who are currently developing around 1,000 homes around Salisbury Plain for service personnel and their families returning from Germany.
During the lifespan of the first panel we secured the development of around 20,000 new homes. Just two years into this we are on course for delivering over 40,000 homes by the end of the panel in March 2017. This is partly due to the upturn in the market but as the panel has become better known within both the public and private sector we have seen a sharp upturn in its usage.
We originally estimated that around £4 billion worth of gross development value would be procured through DPP2 over its four year life span but it has been so successful that we have already put nearly £3 billion through it. As a result we recently had to apply to increase the value to £6 billion to cover the remaining period of the panel and ensure that we are able to maintain development at the current levels. This increase is itself a testament to how popular DPP is with both our public sector partners and developers alike.
Improving the flexibility is a key part of success
We’ve learnt a lot from the first panel and have produced an extensive suite of guidance for users to access. Flexibility is the key, some partners simply want to use the panel and be left to their own devises, and others look to us to help guide them through the process. As a team we have a wealth of experience and knowledge about the schemes developed over the years and in many cases have been able to put partners in touch with one another to help them discuss similar issues they might face – creating a sort of informal buddy system.
We’ve also been encouraging partners to engage with the market at a very early stage on an informal basis. This saves both sides valuable time and ensures that development opportunities offered are viable and attractive to the market. There is no real substitute for a bit of practical advice from the people who will actually build the homes. Both developers and partners have really welcomed this service and found it extremely helpful.
With two years left of the current panel we are already thinking ahead to the development of the third panel. We will soon be sounding out developers, users and those who haven’t yet used DPP to look at ways to shape and improve it for the future. We can never second guess the market so we try to build in as much flexibility as possible within the rules in order to provide our partners with a secure and efficient route to development.
For more information you can email the Developer Partner Panel 2 or download the DDP2 information booklet.