Gas Safety and Servicing Contract

The current Gas Safety and Servicing Contract is due to end in March 2019. In order for the Group to maintain its regulatory responsibility for gas safety compliance, a new Service needs to be operational from April 2019. The current Contract is a 3-star Service and covers approximately 2,400 properties. The majority of boilers are of a domestic nature, with a small number of commercial installations and domestic solar thermal installations.

The Group is in the early planning stages of procuring a new Service to replace the current Service, with an estimated go-live date of April 2019. The Group intends to award a single Contract to a single Contractor.

The new Service shall be procured in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.

The preferred duration of the new Contract shall be for an initial period of 5 years, with an option to extend the contract for up to 2 additional years at the Group's sole discretion.

The Group is including a Preliminary Market Consultation stage as part of of the procurement process.

The objectives of the Preliminary Market Consultation are to:

• Discuss the current Service provision • Determine market capacity and drivers • Establish potential Bidder interest in the new contract • Discuss potential alternative servicing options (e.g. MOT style servicing programme) • Discuss solution and technology options • Discuss product/service development pipelines • Explore the potential for innovation and added value • Establish key cost drivers, current cost bases, pricing model options and estimated budgets • Establish a fit for purpose Service specification

Further details on the Preliminary Market Consultation, including how to express an interest, are set out in the attached Brief document.

Additional information: Please refer to the attached Brief document for further details.