Decision details

That the Council awards a contract to Crystal Electronics to remove redundant communal TV equipment and gift TV aerials where required to tenants, and to upgrade Flatlet scheme aerials to be digitally enabled.

Following a robust Sheltered Housing review and consultation with our tenants, the usage of installed communal TV aerials was decided to be costly to maintain in the sheltered bungalows, and not used, and did not present a digital offer for tenants living within flatlet schemes. The Cabinet in February 2024 supported communal systems to be upgraded to digital in flatlet schemes and stand-alone TV aerials to be gifted to tenants in bungalows.
To ensure the works are completed by competent TV aerial specialists, a Framework has been used to procure Crystal Electronics to undertake this work. The contract value covers a one-off capital investment of £111,000 for the removal, replacement of TV aerials and upgrade to digital, and the Capital budget is already agreed and in place.
Crystal Electronics have met all the criteria through the EEM framework (which is fully compliant with UK procurement and the Council’s Contract Procedural rules). and their price is within the Capital budget allocated of £111,000 for the work required. On-going maintenance costs will be covered by service charges.

Option 1 – do nothing. This is not considered viable as many tenants do not use the communal system, it is costly to repair and is not digitally enabled.
Option 2 – Upgrade all the current communal systems to digital. This would still require an investment of circa £83,370 but would also mean that we would need to cover ongoing maintenance costs of £15,000 and many tenants wouldn’t use the communal system and still want to have their own aerial.