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Davies has invested in new machinery and in training young people. And because he has a three-year contract to supply windows to Mid Devon District Council's social housing, he has also been able to negotiate a fixed glass price with his supplier Pilkington, despite rising prices.

H & L Maintenance, which Davies set up eight years ago, is just one of several local firms which are benefiting from Mid Devon's foray into partnering. Another is guttering installer Kingswood. The biggest employer in his village, company director Neil Cokings was getting sick of his lot as a subcontractor, particularly the lack of respect and late payments. But since signing up to the partnering agreement with Mid Devon, his fortunes have changed. He has increased his team from 16 to 22, 19 of whom come from his village of South Brent.

It's important for local authorities to support local businesses. But what about the customers, those living in the council houses? Well, the tenants seem to be impressed with the new arrangement. Mid Devon can't compare with its performance pre-partnering because it surveyed samples of tenants on a fairly ad hoc basis, but its overall satisfaction score of 92.3% compares well to the national benchmark of 85%.

Facing a crisis
It's a fair turnaround from the situation that building manager, Walter Longden, found himself facing three years ago when contemplating how to spend the 拢18m allocated to get council houses up to the government's decent homes standard by 2010: "The contractors we had traditionally used were getting busier because there were fewer of them. And because there is more money in the sector, the good ones were very busy," he says. "That meant that prices were increasing and the budgets were stretched." And customers were complaining about the quality of work being carried out on their homes.

The time was right for something new. A peer review of the council set up by the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) flagged up the need to change procurement methods. A new chief executive had arrived and was busy rearranging departments and committees to give heads more decision-making power. And Longden had a keen team.

With a couple of partnering seminars under their belts and a sackload of enthusiasm, David Beer, senior contracts surveyor, and Stephen Bennet, who is responsible for getting homes up to standard, went out to talk to contractors.

Some they had to visit several times, says Beer, because the approach was so alien to them. Can you imagine the owner of a small company who prices on the hoof, gains some here, loses some there working with an open book? "Originally they were very apprehensive," says Beer. "We were asking them to act as management contractors with suppliers we had chosen. The main thing was for them to trust us."

Beer thinks his background in contracting 鈥� he was a joiner and then a contracts manager 鈥� helped in the trust department. He is one of them, he says.

The first step was a pilot, worth 拢275,000, to replace windows, doors and aluminium guttering. In order to do that, the building team worked with the council's lawyers and auditors to change the standing orders, the rules which govern how jobs are tendered. Partnering contracts were new ground for Mid Devon, so it drafted in solicitors Bevan Ashford to draw up a bespoke contract.

The team calculated they would save 拢60,000 on the contract value of 拢575,000, calculated using CCT (compulsory competitive tendering) benchmark figures. The elected members were convinced.

It wasn't all plain sailing though, admits Longden. He put men from the council's DLO on a 'mirror contract' to the external contractors and it didn't work. After four months they weren't hitting targets and couldn't get their heads round self-checking. So he stopped the job, moved the men onto different areas and advertised for new people. Most of the internal workforce carries out the day-to-day repairs.

Cross-pollination
Replacement of the doors, windows and guttering continues. And now Bennett is negotiating contracts with Connaughts and Cannings, both selected purely on quality, for contracts to replace central heating, new kitchen and electrical upgrades, lasting three and possibly four years. Beer points out that this saves all the administration and advertising costs which are usually incurred each year when perhaps 25 projects would traditionally have been tendered.

Mid Devon has just purchased software, Contract Benchmark, which maps how it is measuring up to past performance and to its peers. That will save more time, which is important when the professional team is just 13-strong.

And now Longden is eager to spread his good procurement news to other parts of the council. He is due to sit down with a cross- department group to see how Rethinking Construction principles might help the council set up similar partnerships with other suppliers.