MoD touts £2.5bn of army construction work

Contractors Carillion, Babcock and Kier are to fight it out for a share of £2.5bn of construction work following announcements by the Ministry of Defence’s property arm this week.
The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) - set up by the Ministry of Defence in April with the task of overhauling its mammoth estate - said Kier with Turner Facilities Management, Carillion with Enterprise Managed Services, and Babcock have been shortlisted for the £1.5bn contract to provide the British Armed Forces and their families with housing services.

The DIO also announced it will draw up a contract worth up to £950m to manage its 240,000ha UK training estate.

The National Housing Prime contract involves the repair and maintenance of more than 49,000 UK military homes, grounds maintenance, and housing construction projects with an individual value of up to £3.93m. Speaking about the housing contract, Colonel Bill Morris, the DIO’s contract project manager, said: “These contractors now need to build a healthy and competitive supply chain involving a range of enterprises to deliver the housing service to military families.”

The client has invited expressions of interest from potential bidders for the training estate contract, which will come into effect once the current arrangement expires in 2013.

The National Training Estate Prime contract will deliver management of training areas, camps and ranges, including air weapons ranges, in the UK. Key sites will include Salisbury Plain Training Area, Wiltshire; Catterick Training Area, north Yorkshire; Sennybridge, Powys, mid Wales; and Otterburn, Northumberland, with some sites to follow in 2014 and beyond.

The contract is valued at between £400m and £950m over a minimum of five years and a maximum of 10 years.

Brigadier Ian Simpson, head of international operations and training said: “Creating a national contract will ensure coherent management and optimised value for money across complex assets and training requirements.”