Agenda item

To award a contract for the renewal of the tenant’s home contents insurance scheme for the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2025.

Approval was sought to authorise the Director of Housing to award a contract for the renewal of the tenant’s home contents insurance scheme through the current agreement with the Northern Housing Consortium (NHC) for the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2025.

Approval was also sought to authorise the Director of Housing to extend the renewal of the tenant’s home contents insurance scheme through the current agreement with the Northern Housing Consortium (NHC) from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026.

Reasons for Decision

Sandwell Council had utilised Marsh as a broker to source a low cost, non-discriminatory scheme for tenants for the past 16 years. This was designed to provide insurance options for financially excluded tenants who might otherwise be excluded for reasons such as high excess, high premiums, or living in a high-risk postcode area. Home contents insurance promotes resilience and independence for our tenants/policy holders.

The unique selling point of the scheme was there was no excess for policy holders and all tenants could join for the same rate, regardless of the postcode. The cover was from £4,000 to £40,000 and was on a new for old basis.

The value of the contract was dependent on the take up of the scheme by our tenants. Based on the 12 months from August 2020 to July 2021, premiums collected were £262,809. As the value was in excess of £250,000 threshold, this was deemed a key decision, which required the decision to be made by Cabinet.

Alternative Options

The Council could decide to no longer offer Tenant Home Contents Insurance, however, this was not recommended as it would financially exclude council tenants from an affordable home contents insurance scheme.

Alternatively, the Council could cease use of the Northern Housing Consortium (NHC) contract and procure their own insurer independently. However, this option was not recommended as the NHC had members across the country that had joined to take advantage of a wide range of frameworks it could access through the consortium procurement. Moving away from this would eliminate any economies of scale benefits.

Agreed:-

(1)     that the Director of Housing be authorised to award a contract for the renewal of the tenant’s home contents insurance scheme through the current agreement with the Northern Housing Consortium (NHC) for the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2025;

(2)     that, in connection with (1) above, the Director of Housing be authorised to extend the renewal of the tenant’s home contents insurance scheme through the current agreement with the Northern Housing Consortium (NHC) from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026;

(3)     that the Director of Housing in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing be authorised to seek contract terms via the NHC for tenants contents insurance and make the necessary arrangements to put this into place;

(4)     that the Director of Law and Governance and Monitoring Officer be authorised to execute any documentation necessary to enable the above;

(5)     that any necessary exemptions be made to the Council’s Procurement and Contract Procedure Rules to enable the course of action referred to in (1) to (3) above into effect.