24 May 2024
Could you deliver our HPC Community Fund research project?
Summary
We’re inviting organisations to bid for a research project. The aim of the research is to help us focus the delivery of the remaining £9 million from the Hinkley Point C (HPC) Community Fund.
We believe that means 2 things:
- Continuing to meet the needs of today. This can be achieved by gaining a clearer understanding of those local communities that have found it difficult to benefit from the opportunities created by HPC to date, as well as those who have experienced more acute challenges because of the construction of HPC.
- Exploring how longer-term outcomes, or legacies, can be achieved for affected communities with the remaining funds. This might, for example, involve a clearer focus on strengthening communities themselves.
As a guide, we expect the delivery of this project to cost around £50,000 (inclusive of VAT). In addition, we expect the work to take between 3 and 6 months.
About us
We’re a grant-making charity that helps passionate people in Somerset change the world on their doorstep by funding local charities and inspiring local giving and philanthropy.
Through our grant-making, we aim to build stronger communities in Somerset where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.
We award around £4 million of funding to hundreds of small, local charities across the county annually, and we estimate that around 1 in 5 Somerset residents benefit from a charity or project we have funded every year.
The HPC Community Fund is our largest standalone grant programme.
About the HPC Community Fund
Background
Hinkley Point C is the biggest development that Somerset has ever seen. Building work started in 2017 and is expected to continue until at least 2027. It’s making a big difference to the lives of people living nearby, particularly in places like Bridgwater, Burnham-on-Sea and along the Somerset coast, and the surrounding villages.
We (SCF) administer the HPC Community Fund within the framework set out in the HPC Development Consent Order Section 106. Its specific terms of reference are:
The [HPC Community] Fund shall be for the purpose of mitigating the intangible and residual impacts of the [Hinkley Point C] Project on the communities in the Area of Benefit through schemes, measures and projects which promote the economic, social or environmental well-being of those communities and enhance their quality of life.
We manage the Fund under contract to NNB GenCo (EDF) through an Administrative Agreement as set out in the Section 106 agreement. SCF is not a co-signatory of the Section 106 agreement.
In line with National Planning Practice Guidance, we deploy the Fund to mitigate specific consequences arising from the construction of HPC, and in response to the nature, location and magnitude of impacts. The Fund sits within a much wider range of Section 106 measures and should be seen as complementary to those measures but having a distinct role focused on community wellbeing and quality of life.
£15.5 million[1] has been invested between 2014 and 2023 to meet the immediate impacts experienced by communities near the Hinkley Point C building site.
[1] £8.24 million from the HPC Community Fund and the balance from the previous HPC Community Mitigation Fund, which was run by the local authority.
Problem statement
Many short-term impacts on community wellbeing and quality of life from large infrastructure projects are well known. The National Infrastructure Commission offers a clear definition of quality of life and assesses the impact of infrastructure projects on quality of life via a series of domains, derived from the ONS wellbeing dashboard.
The long-term impacts of large infrastructure projects on local communities are less clear. At the same time, we have yet to clearly define what longer term benefits (or legacies) can be expected from the Fund by local communities.
To move confidently into this space, we need to make sense of possible future changes as the construction phase at Hinkley Point C begins to reduce and understand what the future might be like for communities after 2030.
We think this means moving people away from short-term thinking and repositioning the Fund further upstream in order to tackle the root causes of problems. These are the problems that have made some sections of the community less resilient to HPC impacts and/or less able to make the most of the opportunities that have been created.
As such, as we think about what legacy the Fund might have, we have increasingly begun talking about strengthening communities themselves. This would seem to require a different approach to funding the services and physical infrastructure that have characterised the Fund portfolio to date.
Key outputs
We’re keen to work with the successful bidder to agree clear outputs for this project, but at this point we think we want to see:
- a stock take of what we already know and what we don’t know.
- a process to bring people together to think about the future and consider how different types of investment might achieve a lasting legacy.
- a method of collating and reporting the results to everyone. This might include both technical reports and accessible formats as well as presentations.
- a set of recommendations to help us reposition the fund for the future.
Budget
We expect this work to cost around £50,000 (inclusive of VAT). In addition, you will have up to £5,000 to pay £250 a day for the time of non-profit organisations to engage in the work.
Payment will be in 2 equal instalments. The first payment will be made when the contract is signed, and performance indicators agreed. The second will be upon completion.
How to respond to this brief
Bidders must:
- be insured (£250,000 professional indemnity, £5 million public liability, £10 million employers liability)
- provide up-to-date financial information showing a going concern
- provide privacy, safeguarding, equality, diversity and inclusion, and GDPR policies.
In addition, we expect bidders to have experience of:
- delivering community consultation exercises, including equality impact assessments
- engaging a wide range of stakeholders, including those with additional communication needs
- working in partnership with a range of public, private, and charitable organisations.
We believe it may be desirable if you have experience of evaluating community impacts of large-scale engineering projects, but this is not essential.
We are particularly keen to encourage joint bids involving both national and local partners, and will likely favour such approaches over those from a single bidder.
If you believe you meet these requirements, then we would like to hear from you.
If you’re interested in responding, please email no more than 1 page by Friday 21 June, 2024 explaining who you are and why you think you’d be great for this project.
We’ll then arrange a chat with 3 or 4 organisations. From there we’ll shortlist 2 or 3 and ask them to write a proposal and provide supporting documents.
Finally, we’ll arrange a time to speak with the shortlisted organisations before making a final decision.
Contact
- Name: Andrew Ridgewell
- Role: Programmes Director
- Email: andrew.ridgewell@somersetcf.org.uk
- Contact number: 01749 597129
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/andrewridgewell
