Grosvenor looks to tie firms in for work on its London properties

The Duke of Westminster’s property company Grosvenor is developing a framework to lock in specialist contractors for work on its 120 ha London estate.

The £12.9 billion development and investment firm has more than 760 properties across the estate, which encompasses upmarket Mayfair and Belgravia and has been under the management of the Grosvenor family for 330 years. Project management director Stephen Brewer said the company now wanted to enter a formal arrangement with specialist contractors so as to have “a consistency of approach”.

He said Grosvenor had established a three-year renewal framework for general building works across the estate last year, which was won by Renew subsidiary Walter Lilly and property management firm Grangewood.

Mr Brewer added: “We are looking to enter into similar framework agreements with specialist consultants – M&E contractors and quantity surveyors.

“We took the decision that rather than dealing with the properties in isolation, we would amalgamate them into an identifiable portfolio of work.

“It gives us a consistency of approach and also provides them with the comfort of repeat work so they can resource properly.”

Grosvenor has an £80 million annual budget for work on the London estate, which ranges from small to million-pound projects.

But the new frameworks would have strict key performance indicators that contractors would be required to achieve.

Mr Brewer added: “We have specific KPIs which must be met, or we reserve the right to reassess our options.”

Grosvenor is also understood to be looking into a number of new residential development projects for the capital.

The company has already unveiled plans for a 229-apartment development, including four towers next to the Tate Modern, with Native Land.

Carillion has been tipped as the frontrunner for the main contract, which is expected to be announced before the end of next month.

And Mr Brewer said there were several other major London residential projects coming up.

But projects outside London are having a close eye kept on them as the financial sector troubles worsen.

Both Grosvenor’s £558 million Crawley town centre regeneration in West Sussex and its £700 million Preston Tithebarn proposal include building more than 400 new homes.

Mr Brewer said the firm had no plans to shelve the housing elements of either scheme.