Harrow Council will extend its existing highways contract with JB Riney for 18 months, with the option to extend for a further two years in one-year increments, after abandoning the procurement process for a new contract. The contract covers four key categories of work: reactive repairs, routine maintenance, planned maintenance, and planned transport and street lighting improvements.
The decision, made by Councillor Paul Osborn, Leader of the Council, on Tuesday 30 September 2025, comes after officers determined that awarding a contract following the competitive process would not represent value for money at this time. The original contract with JB Riney was due to end on 30 September 2025.
The council had commenced a competitive procurement process following authority from cabinet in 2024. However, during the evaluation, officers raised concerns that bidders had adopted differing approaches to the tender, including in relation to interpretation of terms which were not explicitly defined. Officers also noted that the weighting in the pricing schedule was leading to unintended consequences, in that the lower weighted non-core elements were coming out much higher than under the current contract. A financial evaluation revealed that the highest bidder would be significantly more expensive than the current contract, based on planned work for the next few years, and would not deliver value for money.
The council is required to maintain its highways and related assets to ensure safe passage for highway users under the Highways Act 1980. The Local Government Act 1999 requires the council to make arrangements to achieve best value in the exercise of its functions when considering a service provision.
Abandoning the procurement process has cost the council around £130,000, mainly spent on consultancy fees. According to the Supplemental Agenda, the appointment of consultants to help develop a specification and evaluate tenders for a contract of this level of importance, size and value is normal and the council will need to do the same for a future exercise at a later date. A report will be submitted to cabinet for approval of a future procurement strategy for securing the longer-term commissioning of highway street lighting and associated infrastructure works.
The Printed Minutes of the meeting note that, subject to an amendment to ensure that any extension to the contract would be submitted to Cabinet for consideration, the Leader of the Council resolved to approve the abandonment of the current procurement process and the extension of the current Highways Works Contract.
The council commissions approximately £16m of works per annum via the current highways works contract. Funding for these activities comes from both revenue and capital budgets, including internal sources and external sources, such as Department of Transport (DfT), Transport for London (TfL), section 106 contributions and Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) from developers in relation to planning permissions for developments, as well as funding from successful bids to various government departments and other external bodies, etc.
