Prior Information Notice for Internet Access Connectivity Wayleave Consultancy Services

Tender description

Accent Housing Ltd is an English Registered Provider of Social Housing. Our corporate strategy 2021-2024, <em>Building Better Futures</em>, sets out our ambitious agenda to deliver high quality homes in response to the UK housing crisis and to transform how we provide services to our customers. Our ambition is to be recognised as a market leader for the quality of our homes and the effectiveness of our services. Accent’s principal activity is the management and development of affordable housing, and the organisation currently provides just over 20,000 homes to around 35,000 customers.  We have homes across much of England split into 5 regions which broadly[but not exactly] mirror HM Government Office regions: • Yorkshire & Humber • East • South • North West • North East A sharp increase in wayleave requests associated with the installation of fibre-optic cabling into our properties, coupled with amendments to the Telecommunications Code of Conduct regarding a respondent’s approach to wayleave risks placing an undue financial and resource burden on Accent. Accent Housing seeks to engage with the market for the purpose of building knowledge to inform the design of a detailed procurement & service specification prior launching a competitive process for the provision of Internet Access Connectivity Wayleave Consultancy Services. We are particularly interested in engaging with Economic Operators who have a demonstrable track record in working with Registered Providers of Social Housing in providing advice, guidance, and operational process design & delivery to support the management of requests received from third party communications companies to install fibre cabling into our properties. Our objective is to either design an internal process or alternatively, identify an outsourced provider to service the legal, financial, and operational implications of such requests in an optimal manner. We welcome submissions from potential partners who have the following areas of expertise when working with fibre installation requests: • experience of working with registered providers of social housing or local authority social housing departments in England • a track record in the design and implementation of end to end processes for managing requests • working collaboratively with providers to provide the best outcomes for our customers • the legal implications of approving installations and granting wayleaves • the implications for multi-dwelling units as well as single properties • assessing Health Safety & Environment considerations and creating / managing an agreed sign-off process which protects Accent and our customers • understanding potential funding opportunities to mitigate our cost • experience of working across multiple geographical areas with multiple providers. In addition to the above, direct experience of working on wayleave agreements / operations with City Fibre and Virgin Media plus one or more of the smaller locality based providers is regarded as desirable.   How to respond In the first instance please submit your response to Procontract project DN599180, via the Proactis Portal messaging platform as an executive summary detailing the services you offer and your experience in this area. The Pin closes on 25/03/2022 and that is the deadline for submissions All respondents who meet the minimum criteria will be invited to attend a 60-90 minute meeting via videoconference at a mutually convenient time either w/c 04/04/2022 or w/c 11/04/2022. Keywords: Consultancy, internet connectivity, wayleave