• Swindon & Wiltshire News
• Tuesday May 2 2023
• Author Name: Peter Davison

Beard wins a place on three major construction frameworks

Swindon-headquartered construction firm Beard has won a place on three key construction frameworks in the South West, providing essential services for public developments and social infrastructure.

Southern Construction Framework (SCF) is launching the fifth generation of its £4.5 billion SCF Construct framework on May 2.

The framework is available to all public bodies in the South West to support public sector construction and development in the region, across all sectors including education, health, local authority, leisure developments.

This comes on the back of two other framework wins for the family-run business – the south region of the £2.5 billion Ministry of Justice framework and the £300 million Fusion 21 Youth Investment Fund (YIF) Framework, which provides refurbishment and new buildings for up to 300 youth projects.

Frameworks simplify complicated procurement processes for public sector organisations, by connecting them with the region’s top contractors who have completed a rigorous pre-approval process.

Matt Cooper, director at Beard (pictured), said: “The ethos which drives the creation of frameworks – the need to ensure the best value, speed, confidence and certainty into the delivery of public-money construction contracts – fits perfectly with Beard’s own principles of creating long-term partnerships and working collaboratively with customers and contractors.

Kingsley Clarke, SCF Operations Lead, South West said: “We are delighted to welcome Beard to our 5th generation SCF Construct framework. We’re very much looking forward to working with them and their local supply chains on some innovative schemes in the region.”

Tania Silva, YIF Framework Manager at Fusion21, said: “A total of 25 specialist firms secured a place on the Fusion21 Youth Investment Fund Framework and Beard was successfully appointed to Lot 1 and Lot 2, covering business refurbishment and new build construction. We welcome Beard onto the framework and look forward to working with them.

“The Youth Investment Fund is being delivered by Social Investment Business and we’re proud to be the procurement partner on the scheme. As an organisation we deliver procurement with purpose, creating social value you can see, and the projects delivered through this framework will make a lasting difference to young people and communities across the country.”

Senior framework manager, Marc Bayley added: “These frameworks demonstrate the ambition of the Government’s Construction Playbook to ensure certainty of cost, quality, time and delivery. For Beard, they allow us to demonstrate our 130-year commitment to long-term professional relationships, best value and best practice.”

Beard now holds a place on 14 frameworks across the areas covered by its head office in Swindon and three regional offices in Bristol, Guildford and Oxford.

Working with customers to deliver high quality schemes, the company has secured and delivered 28 framework projects since 2021, with a value of more than £100 million.