Changes to procurement in the housing sector

The Procurement Act 2023 legislates for the provision of a central digital platform to publish new regulation notices and documents. On 24 February 2025, the rules that shape how housing associations and other public bodies purchase web and marketing services, making it easier to find and bid for contracts, and for buyers to meet their transparency commitments under the Act.  

What are the changes?

The Procurement Act 2023 will improve and streamline the way procurement is done and benefit prospective housing association suppliers of all sizes, particularly small businesses, start-ups, and social enterprises.

Key benefits for housing association suppliers include more standardisation and streamlining of procurement processes – but there are additional benefits in the Act such as requiring better oversight of procurement decisions and strengthening payment terms.

More flexibility. The new Act will simplify the bidding processes to make it easier to bid, negotiate, and work in partnership with the housing sector – including a new ‘competitive flexible’ procedure.

It will make commercial frameworks more open, so prospective suppliers are not shut out for long periods of time.

Greater transparency from a central digital platform. This will make it easier to find and bid for housing association contracts and be an enhancement to the existing Find a Tender Service.

It will feature a simple registration approach, storing supplier core business details that can be used for multiple bids, and to manage and update core information quickly.

Public procurement opportunities in the housing sector will be visible, making it easier to search at no cost and set up alerts for tenders of interest.

Greater oversight. A new Procurement Review Unit (PRU) will enhance housing sector procurement practice by ensuring adherence to the Procurement Act and safeguarding public procurement from suppliers deemed to pose risk.

The PRU will maintain and build upon the existing Public Procurement Review Service (PPRS) where you can address concerns regarding public procurement practices relating to a specific procurement procedure and late payment matters.

When does the new act come into effect?

The PRU will ‘go-live’ when the new procurement regime goes live in February 2025, comprised of three services:

1. The existing Public Procurement Review Service (PPRS).

2. A new Procurement Compliance Service (PCS).

3. A new Debarment Review Service (DRS).  

More details on these services, and how they will work, will be provided when the new regime goes live.

What you need to do to get ready 

Familiarise yourself and your colleagues with the Act – check out all the summary documents and videos on the ‘Transforming Public Procurement landing page’ which provides further information about the new regime and the learning and development, guidance and support that Cabinet Office is providing.

Sign up for regular updates here; we will use this to keep you up to date on the Get Ready for go-live webinars and the ‘How to’ videos.

More information and guidance will be made available by the government so you can get ready for the changes. This will cover information on the transitional arrangements and Get Ready guides and videos.

Who does the new act affect and how?

If your business supplies goods, works, or services to housing organisations in the public or utility sectors – or hopes to do so in the future – you need to know about the changes. This also includes supplying to government departments, the NHS, local authorities, universities, schools, police and fire brigades, and utility companies.

It will remove bureaucratic barriers for smaller businesses and VCSEs so they can compete for more contracts – with strengthened provisions for prompt payment throughout the supply chain, with 30-day payment terms on a broader range of housing sector contracts.

Housing associations will also need to adapt to the new process for finding web and marketing agencies as well as provide consistent feedback: a requirement for all public bodies to provide bid assessments for final tenders.

What do businesses need to do to comply?

The new service will be on the same URL on GOV.UK, so you don’t need to update any bookmarks or links you have saved.

If you are already registered on Find a Tender, you will need to re-register and enter your organisation information.

The central digital platform will still be free to use, with no cost to search for contract opportunities or to register for the new service.

Marketing agencies supplying the housing sector need to register for the new service after the law comes into force in February 2025 and at the point that you want to bid for a contract.

Information that you will need to have to hand  

There are a few things required by the new Procurement Act using the Find a Tender service. It will include: your organisation’s Companies House number (if you have one), postal address, website, email, the last two years of accounts (if you have them), details of any people or businesses connected to your business, or with significant control over it (if there are any), the most recent two years of accounts and details of any convictions held or offences committed by the organisation or any people connected to the business.