We are committed to ensuring that we offer competitively priced products, services and value for money. To help us to do this we are members of a number of national purchasing consortiums. This means we can get reduced prices or better quality because we are buying a lot at the same time. This could be from small to large items like kitchens, bathrooms or gas and electricity.

One of these Consortiums is GM Procure who provide both economic and social benefit through more effective, cooperative approaches to purchases in construction – to us as social landlords, you as our tenants, local labour forces in our neighbourhoods and local businesses

CHP is a consortium of social housing providers responsible for more than 30,000 properties in the Cumbria region with a collective improvements budget of £25 million a year. They are aiming to generate efficiencies and impact the local labour market, offering training and employment solutions alongside support for small and medium sized enterprises. CHP will then invest some of these efficiencies directly into local businesses, jobs and skills together with improving the services to all of the member organisations tenants and residents including ours at Derwent & Solway.

To ensure we are offering you the best quality services and materials we keep tenants and residents involved at all stages of the procurement process. GM Procure have a tenant participation strategy in place including consultation, satisfaction surveys and the involvement of tenants in the procurement process. Our main focus for the tenant role is its contribution to continuous quality improvements.

In brief the benefits to our tenants of GM Procure and CHP are:

• Increased planned maintenance work - more jobs can be carried out due to the cheaper costs of labour and materials

• Better quality services and materials – due to economies of scale (this means we get reduced prices or better quality because we are buying a lot at the same time) and smart negotiation methods in contractor selection process

• Benefits to the local economy – local competitive suppliers will be used where possible employing local people

GM Procure and CHP are always seeking help from tenants and residents to ensure that the quality of suppliers materials are up to scratch and that installers have fitted the materials correctly. We also need Harvest tenant representatives for the Tenant Engagement Panel and representatives which can be called on for other responsibilities eg involvement in the procurement process or discussions. If you are interested in becoming involved in this process please speak to your local NRO or Dave Smethurst on 0161 248 2300.

Cumbria Housing Partners is a consortium of all the major social housing providers in Cumbria of which Derwent & Solway Housing Association is one. The other members are Barrow-in-Furness Borough Council, Carlisle Housing Association, Copeland Homes, Derwent and Solway Housing Association, Eden Housing Association, Home Group, Impact Housing Association, South Lakes Housing and Two Castles Housing Association.