OVID-BV : optimising value in decision making for best value in the UK social housing sector

The Governments’ promotion and support of Best Value within the Social Housing Sector has been a prime catalyst in the move by Registered Social Landlord’s [RSL’s] away from the traditional culture of acceptance of the lowest bid towards consideration of both price and quality criteria as a basis for contractor selection. Manifestly this radical change in the way the sector procures its construction services has forced many of its stakeholders to undergo significant cultural and organisational changes within a relatively short period of time, and problems have developed during this transitional period that have affected the efficiency of the best value process. This research traced the root causes of these problems and its overarching aim was to develop an approach which will enable RSL’s and their stakeholders to streamline the best value tender analysis procedure thereby allowing tenders to be dealt with effectively and efficiently whilst also creating a transparent and auditable decision making process. The approach has been established using a mixed methods research methodology utilising; case studies, surveys, rational decision analysis and system evaluation. The main output of the research is the development of a support tool known by the acronym OVID-BV which aids the multi objective decision making process. The underlying rationale for the support tool is based on the innovative use of uncertainty in decision making and the functionality of the tool uses a combination of the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), multi attribute utility theory (MAUT) and whole life costing (WLC).