VEAT Notice - Bath Western Riverside (BWR)

Tender description

This is not a tender opportunity. This VEAT is to inform the market of the Council’s intention to enter into a series of contractual arrangements, including a remediation and enabling works agreement (REWA), to support a package of remediation and enabling works at the Bath Western Riverside Phase II site, informally known as the ‘gas lands’ (Site). The works at the Site will be funded by grant monies from the Homes and Communities Agency (Homes England) Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF). The Council’s long term ambition is the redevelopment of the Site into residential housing. The Site is part owned by the Council and part owned by a housing developer, St William Homes LLP (part of the Berkeley group). The Council is party to a land swap agreement dated 27 January 2022 (LSA) with Berkeley which enables the parties to swap areas of their individual land holdings, as the current land ownership boundaries of the Site limit opportunities for development for both parties. Continues II.2.4 below. Lot 1: The LSA once triggered will create two viable development plots. Prior to the triggering of the LSA, the Council and Berkeley propose to complete remediation and enabling works as a single package across the entire Site as part of a joint remediation strategy. The Council’s advisers have recommended this is necessary to prevent the cross-contamination of the Site and will in addition create efficiencies for the Council. Under the terms of the REWA, Berkeley shall volunteer to act as Site wide contractor for the benefit of both the land Berkeley currently owns, alongside parts of the Council’s current landholding, which Berkeley will ultimately own once the LSA is triggered (noting that Berkeley alone controls the trigger mechanisms for the swap under the LSA and that there are no scenarios whereby the land swap between the Council and Berkeley under the LSA does not take place). In return for granting Berkeley access to the Council’s land, the REWA will include warranties to the Council for the works that shall accrue only if Berkeley completes the remediation works under the REWA, whenever that may be.