Levens Community Project - Autumn 2024 update
“Construction phase to commence early in the New Year”
At present, the Project is deeply engaged in the procurement process whereby a contractor will be appointed to take on the build phase for the new village hall and the affordable houses.
As reported in the last Newsletter, invitations to tender were issued earlier in the year and the five original tenders received have now been whittled down to two possible contractors. Their quotes however require thorough analysis to meet the finances currently available and, through a process known as value engineering, some cost savings have been identified.
To date, and from a standing start with no resources, other than immeasurable dedication and commitment from within the local community, the Project has overcome numerous challenges and progressed well, to a point where it has completed necessary ground works on two sites. This progress represents enormous success - on top of which it currently has access to over £2.2 million, (including £567,000 in grants which are ring-fenced for the affordable houses, and which will be claimed against build costs incurred).
It is an undeniable truth however that the last few years have seen the exponential growth of unforeseen financial pressures, starting with shortages in the supply chain and an associated rise in the price of building materials following Brexit, then delays as a result of Covid 19, compounded by soaring inflation, increased interest rates and economic uncertainty caused by global instability arising from conflict in eastern Europe and beyond. Further work is therefore required on value engineering whilst parallel work is taking place to identify alternative construction-phase models that might achieve further cost savings without compromise to the original plans. It is also important that fund raising initiatives continue, and the Project hopes that the window for applications to the Government backed Community Ownership Fund will re-open in the near future.
As illustrated above, however, the resources available to the Project are substantial and it is close to securing the right financial framework which will enable the construction phase to commence early in the New Year.