Legal services first for North West ALMO’s social housing group
After a successful tender process conducted for them by procurement agents, the Northern Housing Consortium, the North West Arms Length Management Organisation Group (NWAG), a regional grouping of seven ALMO's; Bolton at Home, Six Town Housing, Salix Homes, Northwards, First Choice Homes, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing and Stockport Homes, has appointed Manchester law firm Pannone LLP as its legal advisors. The approach taken by NWAG to share four areas of legal services, covering; employment, governance, corporate law and tenancy management, is thought to be the first
of its kind.
NWAG's approach to shared services stemmed from their belief that there was the opportunity to combine their skills, knowledge and service requirements and deliver for the Group; value for money, the sharing of best practise, consistent high quality services and added value.
NWAG's first contract with Pannone and has paved the way for future joint projects for the Group.
Paving the way
The decision to take a shared approach was led by NWAG Chair, Ian Ankers, who commented, "The establishment of the legal services framework agreement is an exciting development for the Group, and we look forward to testing Pannone for increased efficiency and added value. We are now working on our next phase of shared services including considering a shared service approach for areas such as out of hours call handling."
Said Northern Housing Consortium Commercial Director, Andrew Carlin, "When NWAG asked us to facilitate this project, we were keen to use our procurement expertise to assist them in what we recognised was an innovative approach to buying in professional services. The establishment of this framework agreement is an excellent example of collaborative procurement that our membership as a whole can learn from."
Charles Layfield at Pannone commented, "Following a lengthy tendering exercise our team are delighted to have been appointed as the legal advisors to NWAG and we are very excited to have the opportunity to work with the Group on such an innovative project. This is a significant coup for us and reflects our commitment for further expansion into the social housing sector".
ENDS
Rob Ainscough
PR Manager, Pannone LLP
Direct Line 0161 909 6422
Mobile 07827 240280
Email rob.ainscough@pannone.co.uk
