Construction steering group

The construction steering group, organised by the LGA, brings together senior procurement professionals from local government across England, with representation from each region.

Collaborating closely with the National Association of Construction Frameworks (NACF) and the Infrastructure Projects Authority, the group meets quarterly and is open to new members involved in procurement and construction roles within local authorities.

Visit our construction procurement hub for further information. 

If you are interested in joining, please submit an expression of interest form. Upon acceptance, you will be added to the membership list and invited to all future meetings.

If you would like to learn more, please contact  [email protected]

Terms of reference

The group's terms of reference are currently being reviewed and updated to align with its new strategic approach to meetings.

LGA modern slavery assurance guidance – construction

Local authorities undertake a significant volume of construction work ranging from programmes of repair and maintenance to major refurbishment and new build projects across a host of different sectors including schools, social care, housing, infrastructure and highways. It is therefore crucial that councils use their spending power to ensure that their supply chain is behaving responsibly and identifying and combatting instances of exploitation wherever it may be found in the supply chain tiers.

To address exploitation effectively it is essential that organisations take a risk-based approach to procurement. Whilst construction as a sector is considered high risk for modern slavery, the risks are found within specific materials and work packages which need to be identified by any procurement team before any requirements are set.

This guidance document has been developed to support procurement teams within local authorities embed requirements through the procurement process to identify and combat exploitation and slavery wherever it may be found.

It has been developed to outline all key activities that are associated with good procurement and provide advice, examples, and links to appropriate resources that will allow procurement teams to integrate requirements as effectively as possible.

National construction category strategy 2018

The second edition of the construction category strategy was launched in 2018 and outlines how councils can facilitate better value solutions that can be achieved through lower capital costs and more efficient procurement. This is particularly important given recent major public sector supplier collapse.

National school delivery cost benchmarking

'National schools delivery cost benchmarking' is a hugely important study, providing a reference point for councils when assessing schools costs. 

The 2020 study that includes data from 2019 has now been published.

National school delivery cost benchmarking: Primary, secondary and SEN schools (November 2023)

National school delivery cost benchmarking: Primary, secondary and SEN schools (June 2019)

The study has been undertaken with funding from the LGA and conducted by Hampshire County Council in conjunction with East Riding of Yorkshire Council, the Department for Education, Education Building and Development Officers Group (EBDOG) and National Association of Construction Frameworks (NACF).

This significant study now has a dataset with a capital value of over £5.7 billion from 150 local authorities across England. The study has good data on the actual costs of primary, secondary and SEN school projects including:

• cost per place
• gross costs
• net costs.

To ensure a high level of consistent participation, local authorities are asked to submit data using a common standard form of cost analysis.

This study is a valuable tool for us all to understand the real cost of building new school places across the country.

Framework contracts

Effective construction frameworks compares construction frameworks with traditional forms of procurement (where suppliers are procured for individual projects) and considers the benefits offered by effective construction frameworks. It also sets out the key features of effective framework agreements. The details included are not necessarily exclusive to framework arrangements; the attributes can also be prerequisites in other effective construction procurement mechanisms or routes to market.

A refreshed version of the Effective Construction Frameworks document will be available for download soon.

For access to construction-related framework contracts please visit the NACF website.