SUMMER 2025 DIGITAL - Flipbook - Page 39
HOUSING
GPSJ
Why procurement can open the door to
mayor’s north-east housing vision
By Faye Whiteoak, regional director of the Northern Procurement Alliance
Two seismic events with
massive implications for the
north-east occurred in the last
15 months.
One, the election of North-East
Mayor Kim McGuinness, a force
of nature who has hit the ground
running with a 10-year plan to
bring investment to the region.
Two, the North East Combined
Authority (NECA) and Homes
England, the government’s
housing and regeneration
agency, signing a Strategic Place
Partnership to support the region
in realising its housing ambitions.
Work and homes - the bedrock
of any community and key to the
new mayor’s vision that the northeast become “a trailblazer for the
UK’s economic success”.
While the ten-year plan
embraces aspiration, focusing on
clear industrial sectors and goals,
I would argue that the bigger
challenge lies in tackling the
burgeoning crisis of housing - or
lack of it - across the region.
North East ‘housing
emergency’
The charity Shelter has warned
that the North East is facing a
“housing emergency” and the
昀椀gures back that up:
The number of households
on social housing waiting lists
across North East England has
hit its highest level since 2012,
says Shelter, rising from 50,453
households waiting in 2022, to
75,985 in 2023. An increase
of nearly 51%. Far higher than
anywhere else in England.
The mayor said of signing the
Strategic Place Partnership with
Homes England: “It will allow
us to take some of our biggest
brown昀椀eld sites and turn them
from eyesores into the homes and
communities people need.
“It’s an opportunity to
turbocharge development across
the region by working with the
agency (Homes England) and our
local authorities to create new
homes that are a昀昀ordable, energy
e昀케cient, and where people can
thrive.”
She added: “Everyone in the
North East deserves a place they
are proud to call home, and that
is why I have made housing a key
plank of my plans as mayor.”
These are bold ambitions, and
for them to succeed there needs
to be structure, trust, process
and professional guidance –
something frameworks provide.
I understand this better than
most, given my present role
leading the northern arm of a
national framework provider and
my professional past as housing
architect and a number of
director/senior positions within the
housebuilding industry.
Frameworks bring buyers and
suppliers together to build social
housing and public property more
e昀케ciently and cost e昀昀ectively,
and to the bene昀椀t of the local
community. Created for local
authorities, social landlords and
other public sector bodies, they
also help in refurbishment or
retro昀椀tting, maintenance and
decarbonisation of existing
housing stock
Take the new name of the
procurement team that I lead,
for instance - The Northern
Procurement Alliance (NPA).
Local authorities engaging with
frameworks to create more social
housing should see it as just that:
an alliance.
large scale regeneration projects,
I understand where procurement
teams are coming from.
But back to the NECA’s housing
challenge - is it possible to make
huge strides?
The NECA’s housing and land
advisory board sees a key goal
as “coordinating existing local
authority partnerships and delivery
vehicles to support the delivery
of key housing/regeneration
sites, expanding delivery options
and remits in line with emerging
opportunities.”
So, the aspiration is certainly
there. But what does that mean in
practice?
There is a perception among
some in the North that delivery is
still limited by a Southern focus in
Government policy, which enables
the South to grow but leaves the
North behind.
What I would say is that many
of the issues faced here are
understood best by those in
the North: The nature, type and
quality of housing in the North, our
communities and history, regional
developers, etc. Transport links
and investment are also a major
factor.
Policy makers must understand
the di昀昀erent nature of the issues
faced, and to do that, they must
listen to Northern voices.
That, for me, is the crux of
the issue. The North has its own
challenges, its own issues, and
should look to its own solutions.
Framework providers
embedded in the North that
understand the complexity of
our wonderful region and its
inspirational residents can play
their part in turning the north-east
mayor’s housing vision into reality.
Faye Whiteoak
‘Ring me if you need advice’
I see my team as an extension
of a public sector procurement
body and always say “ring me
if you need advice, even if you
choose at the end of the day
to go with someone else.” With
much of my career spent leading
Kim McGuinness
GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC SECTOR JOURNAL SUMMER 2025
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