The Community Regeneration Partnership (CRP2) (formerly Levelling Up Programme (LUP)) is a programme of 14 Capital and 1 Revenue projects that require additional procurement support. 10 of the capital projects are being delivered by the councils Project Delivery Unit, the remaining 4 by Essex County Council.

Many of the projects are property / construction related, requiring specialist procurement support from Essex Procurement Partnership that requires additional recruitment. This funding would to be to recruit an additional Assistant Procurement Manager into an existing specialist procurement category team within Essex County Council. This resource has been programmed against a number of the projects within the CRP2 programme.

At their meeting on 15 November 2024, Cabinet agreed the following in respect of the Project Delivery Unit budget:

- authorises the Director for Governance and the Director for Finance & IT, in consultation with the Corporate Director (Place and Economy), to enter into an agreement with Essex County Council (ECC) to increase existing procurement capacity for Tendring District Council;

- agrees a sum of up to the value of £120,000 over two years from the associated approved budget to fund the additional procurement capacity from ECC;
- authorises the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Economic Growth, Regeneration and Tourism, to agree further expenditure where capacity is procured from external bodies / organisations / individuals as an alternative to recruitment.

This decision formalises the arrangements above and sets out the parameters for entering into agreement with Essex County Council to provide additional procurement support for the Project Delivery Unit.