A total of 20 companies have secured work on Procure North West's £2 billion four-year construction framework.

The scheme, which covers Cumbria, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, and Merseyside, is split into four lots and expected to run until 2022.

The framework covers public sector bodies across the region, and is open to NHS bodies, emergency services, colleges, universities, schools, local authorities, housing associations, and registered charities. Leisure providers, the Ministry of Defence, and other government departments will be able to procure projects through the scheme.

The successful firms are as follows;

• Lot 1, covering projects worth £1m – £5m: Casey Group, Crossfield, Cruden, Eric Wright, Esh, Henry Boot Construction, Seddon Construction, Whitfield & Brown


• Lot 2, covering projects worth £5 – £15m: Bardsley Construction, Eric Wright, Galliford Try, Interserve, ISG, Graham, Kier Construction, Wates

• Lot 3, covering projects worth £15m – £25m: Bam, Galliford Try, Interserve, Kier Construction, Laing O'Rourke, Morgan Sindall, Wates, Willmott Dixon

• Lot 4, covering projects worth more than £25m: Bam, Laing O'Rourke, McLaren, Morgan Sindall, Willmott Dixon.

Robbie Blackhurst, Managing Director of Procure North West, said: "When we built the Procure North West Framework the key driver was to establish an OJEU-compliant framework that captured all of the pockets of best practice from other framework procurement routes and pull them under one umbrella.

"This has enabled us to develop a procurement tool for the public sector that is not only effective and efficient but also offers clients a degree of flexibility whilst providing demonstrable value for money.

"Having the contractor partners on board was the last missing piece of the jigsaw and we are delighted that the framework is now live and can start to support the public sector deliver their capital projects."

(LM)