Collaboration vs formal consortium arrangements

Please note: this news article is from an archive, and may now include information, references or terminology that is out of date. Please refer to the main sections of this website for latest information.

Consortium working

Within the SHDF Wave 2.1 competition window, there is no requirement for consortium working.  All bids will be marked on the criteria set out in the policy guidance, based on a combination of deliverability and value for money.

In general, organisations have found consortia to be beneficial but do note that consortium working can also create a number of complexities and contractual challenges. The government has no desire to force consortium working on RPs, and would only encourage you to work in consortia if you think (and can communicate to us) there are clear benefits to this approach.

We would – of course – like to see collaboration across the sector, and would encourage bidders to look for ways to collaborate and share lessons, but this may be formal or informal and is only relevant for evaluation where there is demonstrable benefit (or disbenefit) on deliverability and value for money.

You can find more information on consortium working in the SHRA Knowledge Hub and consortium toolkit.

Competition and scale

The government has made available £800m in grant funding for SHDF Wave 2. This is a high and ambitious target, and funds will be allocated to bids that demonstrate they meet the deliverability and value for money criteria.

We would encourage RPs to be similarly ambitious and maximise this opportunity, but there is no evaluation advantage to a big bid vs a small bid (so long as the bid meets the minimum 100 home threshold).

Again, evaluation of bids will be based on the key funding criteria of value for money and deliverability.

As always, if you have any questions or need to support with your SHDF bid, the expert SHRA team is on hand to help - get in touch.