October 2020

Industry News
ROOFERS REQUIRED
Procurement for Housing (PfH) is searching
for SME roofing and glazing contractors
across the UK to deliver responsive repairs
and voids works to social landlords for an
initial term of five years, through a new
dynamic purchasing system (DPS).
Procurement services provider PfH, which
has over 900 members, has designed the
DPS to help housing providers clear their
backlog of routine repairs and procure repairs
flexibly in the future. New roofing and glazing
contractors can join the DPS at any time,
unlike a framework.
The total value of the reactive repairs and
voids work to be procured via the DPS is
estimated at £490million. For each category,
contractors will be required to either
supplement a social landlord’s in-house
direct labour organisation or to fully manage
an outsourced repairs and voids service,
which may include call handling, repairs
diagnostics and work scheduling.
The DPS helps small, local contractors by
streamlining the tender process. Once
suppliers have passed the DPS selection
procedure, they can quickly bid for any
opportunities by submitting a tender. There is
no need for them to go through the selection
stage again and again for each contract
opportunity.
Steve Malone, Managing Director at
Procurement for Housing said: “Social
landlords are dealing with an unprecedented
backlog of routine repairs jobs plus the
pressure of social distancing on maintenance
jobs. We hope this DPS will help the sector to
overcome some of these problems whilst also
supporting SME contractors who can quickly
register and bid without having to go through
a time-consuming tender process.”
More news, updates and interviews at www.total-contractor.co.uk
ROOFCERT ACCREDITS FIRST 50 ROOFERS
Fifty roofers from ten different
knowledge, their understanding of
roofing companies across the
six core areas of health and safety,
country have become the first
as well as their ability and
operatives to be officially
competency in their particular
‘accredited’ by RoofCERT, the UK’s
disciplines. They are now proven to
only accreditation scheme for
be masters of their craft, and this
roofing operatives.
should stand them in good stead for
their future career. I would like to
RoofCERT is professionalising the roofing industry
thank all the companies who have supported
by helping roofing operatives demonstrate their
RoofCERT by putting these operatives through the
competency and roofing contractors to upskill
process."
their teams.
He added: “The construction industry is only going
To achieve accreditation, roofers must pass a
in one direction, and that is towards a greater focus
rigorous knowledge test, undertake six health and
on competency and professionalism. We know that
safety awareness courses and demonstrate their
there are going to be new regulations around
roofing competence via practical assessment.
building safety and greater expectations around
The operatives will need to renew their
competency down the line, and these roofers are
accreditation again in three years to ensure they now future-proofed for the changes to come.
keep to up to date with changing standards and
He concluded: “There are almost 2,000 funded
regulations.
places currently available for other operatives to
While there are many companies with operatives do the same, and they should do so before the
who are close to accreditation, the following places go. We have made many changes to
companies were announced as the first ten to get ensure we can still accredit roofers through the
their operatives ‘over the line’: Aldridge & Sons Covid-19 pandemic via methods such as e-
Roofing; County Flat Roofing; Everlast Group learning awareness courses and online tests. We
Hadfield Roofing & Cladding; Jarvis & Womack; have seen a surge in demand for the scheme
NRA Roofing and Flooring Specialists; Rio Asphalt recently, and places are starting to go. So, if you
& Paving Company; SPV Group; Sussex Asphalte; are a roofing contractor thinking about putting
Treforest Tiling.
your team through the process, or an
operative who wants to prove their
Richard Miller, Head of
competency, I would urge you to
Qualifications and Standards at
join these first ten companies
RoofCERT, said: “These 50
and 50 roofers and sign up
roofers should be incredibly
now.”
proud of themselves. They have
demonstrated their technical
Left: Treforest Tiling.
To apply for inclusion visit:
www.in-tendhost.co.uk
Above:Jarvis & Womack.
Above: County Flat Roofing.
6 TC OCTOBER 2020