Complaints include opaque procedures and lack of opportunities for local firms in the face of competition for national contractors.
The call for change sis being led by the Construction Alliance North East (CAN) and the Construction Industry Council North East (CIC NE), collectively representing contractors and professional services in the construction industry.
They want the public sector to improve procurement practices and create a fairer construction business environment in the region.
At a recent meeting of the two organisations, concerns were raised about the disconnect between planning and procurement teams and those tendering for contracts.
CAN board member Matthew McCarrick, who is also a vice president of the Northern Counties Builders Federation, said that procurement frameworks were effectively creating closed shops. Of a recent local contract award, he said: “The framework was awarded to six contractors; two of the contractors have gone pop, two of them don’t bid, so really there are only two contractors bidding – the system is flawed.”
He said: “The actual gripe seems to be that many bodies appear to be hiding behind the computer screens and red tape. We just can’t engage with them sufficiently.
“In some ways it doesn’t drill down into procurement and whether or not it helps to have a local contractor or a national one, but if you can’t speak with the person who is the gatekeeper, how do we try to get the projects started?”
Companies represented at the meeting included Surgo, BCE Northern, Re:Gen, Persimmon, XSite Architecture and Studio SP. They also discussed northeast SMEs being overlooked for procurement opportunities and urged a more transparent process in which businesses could demonstrate their viability to deliver a project, as opposed to the lowest bidder being awarded contracts.
CIC NE regional chair Chandra Vemury said that the issues raised pointed to endemic problems across the construction sector. He said: “The scale of the problems which have been identified has surprised me. There seems to be a widespread lack of competence and the endemic nature of unhealthy practices in procurement directly hurt the whole construction chain.
“We have a need to build local resilience in complex situations, which can be achieved through improved understanding, and communication between various professional teams operating within construction projects and by creating fair opportunities for companies based in the northeast of England.”
Following the discussions, it was agreed that CAN and CIC NE would approach mayoral candidates for the newly-developed North East Combined Authority to discuss their concerns and proposals for the regional construction sector.
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