A company based in Cornwall has been given the job of helping to deliver a £70 billion framework to aid the country's transition to Net Zero - the target of completely negating the amount of greenhouse gases by reducing emissions. The Place Group - which is based at The Regent, Chapel Street, Penzance - has won a huge framework tender to "control, manage and deliver" the public sector transition to Net Zero. - CornwallLive
It will act as a "middleman" overseeing the framework for services, products, solutions and support for Everything Net Zero via the contracting authority East of England Broadband Network (E2BN). The small company is a "specialist consulting, project management and research company with 18 years’ experience in the field of education".
Its website states: "We have a strong track record of developing winning free school applications and have successfully opened over 100 new schools for clients and trusts across the country. Trusts and schools will be developing their environment strategies ready to meet decarbonisation targets and reach net zero carbon across their estates by 2030 and longer term 2050 under the Climate Change Act.
"Place Group provides an end-to-end solution to enable trusts and schools to meet their net zero vision objectives efficiently and effectively through a phased programme approach. This approach, or ‘journey’, is underpinned by our technical and programme management expertise in the educational built environment space, and by our estates supply chain vehicle."
The company has net assets of £344,417 under the directorship of Claire Delaney and Simon Rule.
The East of England Broadband Network (E2BN), the contracting authority, is putting in place a framework agreement for use by UK public sector bodies, including schools, colleges and universities, NHS organisations, local authorities, fire and police services, and more.
The Place Group won the four-year contract to facilitate the framework for such areas as reducing all emissions especially carbon, increasing the use of sustainable resources, improving recycling, exploiting greener technologies and innovation, greener use of water, electricity, gas, oils, and other fuels including hydrogen, battery and nuclear, and greener transportation. It will also access financing, grants and awards to deliver a "comprehensive greener strategy to meet the needs of education, central and local government and other public sector and associated organisations".
The government Contracts Finder website which states the Place Group has won the network contract has caused some confusion. The company won't receive £70bn but will oversee a framework of delivery with an estimated turnover of £70bn.
The successful bidder was "expected to demonstrate they can impartially control, manage and deliver against the full range of required areas and to maintain and integrate such competing sub-contractors as necessary to ensure choice and flexibility in each category, best value and seamless interoperability. At all times choice, service and cost are of vital importance".
The Government’s long-awaited strategy for reaching net zero emissions was revealed last October, with ministers saying it would create up to 440,000 jobs and “unlock” £90bn in investment in the next decade, most of it from private sector companies.
The plan involves an expansion of electric vehicles, including increasing the network of charging points, and further growth of offshore wind, as well as investments in new technologies such as hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuel and £120m towards at least one new nuclear power station. Households will benefit from grants to install low-carbon heat pumps as part of a £3.9bn plan for decarbonising heat and buildings, including a £450m three-year boiler upgrade scheme.
However, last week, the high court ordered the Government to outline exactly how its net zero policies will achieve emissions targets, after a legal challenge from environmental groups. Friends of the Earth, Client Earth and the Good Law Project had all taken legal action over the Government’s flagship climate change strategy, arguing it had illegally failed to include the policies it needed to deliver the promised emissions cuts.
Mr Justice Holgate said the strategy lacked any explanation or quantification of how the government’s plans would achieve the emissions target, and as such had failed to meet its obligations under Climate Change Act (CCA) 2008.
Place Group submitted a tender and was selected on the basis of its tender by the contracting authority (E2BN). Everything Net Zero is a managed service framework where Place Group will run tender competitions for public sector ordering bodies. We will invite leading sustainability organisations to tender for contracts, undertaking cost benchmarking to ensure the public sector gets best value for money. We will be seeking innovation from experts in climate change to deliver real programmes to decarbonise our world and reduce energy consumption. Place Group is a procurement service for the public sector, ensuring compliance, transparency and value for money for the public purse. Our role is to save the public sector money (we saved £26m for schools in the South West) and to ensure that the Net Zero strategy gets translated into practical projects that get implemented. The Everything Net Zero Framework has a limit of £70bn that can be procured through it. Place Group has NOT been awarded a contract for £70bn. Like all frameworks supporting public sector procurement, our costs are covered from a very small framework levy that suppliers pay if they win contracts.
Mr Justice Holgate
