Oaklee Housing Association / Procurement
Procurement
For some years Oaklee Housing Association has promoted joint procurement as a way forward for achieving efficiency and savings to pass on to our tenants. This has included bulk purchase of heating oil with other Associations along with the materials needed for planned improvement works for our schemes.
These initiatives have achieved over 5% savings to the public purse as well as providing more economical bills for the tenants. More recently the quality and speed of repairs response have been helped by partnering with 7 Associations in the greater Belfast area, helping over 10,000 tenants.
Minister Margaret Ritchie announced the details of the New Build Procurement Strategy, which is the next stage in this partnering process, and Oaklee has joined the ‘Premier Procurement’ to agree the business plan, co-ordinate the bidding process for new schemes, and co-operate in every aspect of social housing delivery to benefit the people of Northern Ireland. The grouping also has membership from Clanmil, South Ulster, Woodvale & Shankill and Student Housing Associations – thus reflecting a wide geographical and client base.
A competition was set up to create a logo for the new Group through the Masters in Marketing Degree course at the University of Ulster. With 49 entries the overall winner was Bruce Hogg for the logo shown attached, which represents a strong recognisable image, with an abstract of a house with different lines crossing through and symbol of working together. The photograph shows Bruce being presented with his award along with the four runners up in the competition.
