Cork City Council Housing Directorate designed and implemented an integrated Competitive Dialogue Procurement & Planning Procedure to deliver and construct hundreds of social housing units in the City as a response to the homelessness and housing crisis. The objective of the procedure was to provide a streamlined solution to the housing delivery requirements in its central urban area, currently hampered by various constraints, ranging from scarcity and complexity of available sites, to stakeholder and other concerns.
The resulting procurement process is a creative and innovative solution to the housing delivery puzzle. The Competitive Dialogue Procurement & Planning model developed and adapted by the Council is based on the adoption of an EU procurement procedure and integrating it with local authority Part 8 planning procedures all within an overarching Competitive Dialogue wherein the Procurement Authority engages transparently, proportionally, and equally with all the stakeholders ranging from land owners, developers, designers, host communities, elected members to the DHPLG.
This procurement route for delivery of social housing has resulted in a number of impacts and outcomes – “brownfield” sites have been unlocked which resulted in the regeneration of urban neighbourhoods, and the Rutland Square project is a strong example of this initiative.