Cambridge City Council - Finance HRA Consultancy

Cambridge City Council require specialist support to assist with medium to long-term financial planning within the Housing Revenue Account. The HRA holds stock of around 7,500 homes, with annual rental income of c. £50-55m. The existing 30-year business model is now several years old, and assumptions have not kept pace with significant changes in the sector including new pressures around DCM (Damp, Condensation and Mould) and fire safety. The council is consistently overspending against budget on revenue repairs and maintenance, whilst underspending on the capital programme due to capacity constraints. The time is right, therefore, for a full refresh of the 30-year business plan.

The minimum requirements are as follows: -
- Provision of a financial model to support the 30-year business plan, with assistance to populate.
- Review of and advice on key assumptions about the external economy, future pressures, and future government policy (e.g. rent setting and right-to-buy).
- Review of council cost base and/or access to benchmarking information to identify areas for further investigation/potential efficiencies.
- The refreshed plan will need to be kept up to date to reflect both changes in the housing landscape and the results of stock condition surveys as and when they are completed.

We are keen to explore options around either (a) a one-off piece of consultancy work covering the above, or (b) a retained consultancy arrangement for a period of up to 3 years and would like to invite proposals for either or both options.
We are also keen to hear about any added value services which are relevant to the above, and whether these are included in a base contract price or available to purchase as add-ons.

You should have recent experience of supporting other Councils with their 30-year business plan.

If you can provide all (or the majority) of these services and are interested in a conversation about these requirements, please submit a brief statement of your experience. This should include recent experience (within the last 12 months), the nature of that experience (consultancy or retainer) and should be no longer than 1000 words. In addition please provide outline pricing for consultancy days (including the level of those supplying the support) as well as an outline cost of a retainer fee and what that would include (i.e. number of consultancy days), again referring to the level of support given for this cost.

Finally, please provide a single referee who can support your statement of experience.

This information should be provided no later than Monday 28th July by 10pm.

Should you have any questions or queries please submit them via the portal. Responses will be given within 48hours. Questions and answers (anonymised) may be published unless the question is considered to be ‘commercial in confidence’ by the Council – if it is not you will have the opportunity to withdraw the question rather than it be published.

Once the council have responses to this request a decision on how to move this requirement forward will be considered. This may result in a direct award or an RfQ could be decided on suitability of those interested and the numbers requesting an interview.

It should be noted that failure to express an interest in this work may well result in not being asked to submit a comprehensive bid at a later stage.