Framework agreements between developers and suppliers exist because the alternative, individually tendering every package on every scheme, is expensive in management time and inefficient in supplier development. The framework reduces friction by holding pricing, performance standards and contract terms broadly stable across a programme of schemes. Both sides benefit from the predictability.
Within frameworks, developers can structure relationships in two main ways. The first is a framework with multiple single-discipline contractors, one per package. The second is a framework with one or more multi-discipline groups capable of covering several packages each. Both are common. The second is becoming more common at portfolio scale, and the reasons are operational rather than ideological.
Single-discipline framework relationships require the developer to manage cross-package coordination directly. The scaffold framework partner does not necessarily talk to the roofing framework partner unless the developer convenes the conversation. Over time, those conversations develop into working relationships, but the convening is still the developer’s overhead.
Group-based framework relationships put the cross-package coordination inside the supplier. The group manages its own internal interfaces. The developer interacts with the group rather than with each constituent trade. The administrative overhead on the developer’s side falls.
For framework developers running ten or twenty schemes a year across a regional portfolio, that administrative saving compounds. A project management team spending less time convening contractor conversations can carry more schemes per head. The framework relationship itself becomes more productive without requiring more people.
There is also a quality dimension. Framework relationships work best when the supplier is invested in the long-term relationship rather than the individual scheme margin. Multi-discipline groups, with broader exposure to the developer’s overall programme, typically demonstrate that long-term investment more visibly than single-discipline contractors who can be more transactional in posture.
The Globe Group’s framework relationships with developers in the South East reflect this pattern. The group typically works with framework partners on multiple concurrent and sequential schemes, with the same account team carrying the relationship across all of them. New schemes start with shared context. Programme dates are committed against the group’s broader resource picture, not against an isolated scheme view.
There is a related point about pricing. Framework pricing tends to be reviewed periodically rather than rebid every scheme. Group-based frameworks make this review more efficient because it covers multiple packages in one conversation. Single-discipline frameworks require parallel pricing reviews with each partner, multiplying the effort.
For framework developers considering whether to consolidate around fewer, multi-discipline suppliers, the practical questions to ask are about portfolio-level performance. Across the last twelve months, how often did programme dates hold on schemes with single-discipline partners versus group partners? Where coordination failures occurred, who absorbed the cost? Where defects emerged in the post-handover period, how quickly were they resolved?
The answers usually point in the direction of consolidation, particularly at higher portfolio volumes. The exceptions are developers with specific sub-package needs (very specialist roof types, unusual ground conditions, regulated environments) where the single-discipline specialist genuinely beats the multi-discipline generalist on technical depth.
For most regional housing development at scale, group-based framework relationships outperform single-discipline ones across the metrics that actually matter. The Globe Group’s framework offer is built around that operational reality rather than around any commercial preference.
Talk to the Globe Group To discuss group-based framework relationships across multiple sites on your scheme, contact the Globe Group on 01223 890727 or email enquiries@theglobegroup.co.uk.
