The London Borough of Hackney Temporary Accommodation Dynamic Purchasing System is one of the longest-running homelessness placement routes in inner London, which makes it both a steady referral pipeline for accommodation suppliers and a strategic entry point if your portfolio already covers Hackney, the City fringe or the surrounding North-East London boroughs.

For some suppliers, it is the obvious next step. For others, the housing standard, the licensing position or the financial profile is wrong from the start. In a few cases, the right move is to qualify for the DPS and only accept offers on the property types where your portfolio actually performs.

But the qualification rules are not simple. The DPS sits outside CQC and Ofsted, but it is tightly framed by the Housing Act 1996 Part 7 main homelessness duty, the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 prevention and relief duties, the Localism Act 2011 private rented sector discharge route and HMO licensing under Housing Act 2004 Part 2.

This guide explains what the Hackney Temporary Accommodation DPS actually is, the cohort and statutory context that frames every placement, the key scoring battlegrounds suppliers underestimate, the evaluator-side pitfalls that lose placements, and the win-rate playbook we apply on comparable accommodation-supply submissions.

What is the Hackney Temporary Accommodation DPS?

It is a Dynamic Purchasing System operated by the London Borough of Hackney Benefits and Housing Needs Service to procure temporary accommodation for homeless households the Council has accepted, or is in the process of accepting, under its homelessness duties.

The DPS is an extension of the arrangement that originally commenced in 2016 and is currently published with a deadline of 26 January 2028, reflecting the long-running nature of the system rather than a single one-off submission window. Applications go through the ProContract portal. The Contracts Finder notice is the source of record.

The arrangement is open-ended. Suppliers can join across the contract term as their property pipelines come online, and the Council uses the live supplier pool to place households as homelessness applications and Part 7 enquiries are concluded.

NOTE: this DPS is for accommodation only, not supported living or supported housing. There is no care element, no CQC registration requirement and no support contract attached. The Council buys housing supply; statutory housing support and homelessness case management stay with the Benefits and Housing Needs Service.

Two things matter from day one. First, the qualification submission is the only marketing document you will get. Once you are on the DPS, Hackney's placement team selects from your declared property portfolio on the strength of how you described it when you joined. Second, placements typically go to the supplier whose property type, location, household size and licensing position most closely match the individual referral - not necessarily the largest supplier on the DPS.

Who is the cohort and what statutory framework applies?

The cohort is homeless households accepted, or being assessed, under Hackney's homelessness duties. The most common groups are:

• Single homeless adults owed the prevention duty under s.195 or the relief duty under s.189B of the Housing Act 1996.
• Families with dependent children owed the main housing duty under s.193, where the Council has concluded its enquiries and accepted the duty.
• Households with protected characteristics that affect property type, including pregnant households, households with disability adaptation needs and households fleeing domestic abuse.
• Households the Council intends to discharge into the private rented sector under the Localism Act 2011 discharge route, where the accommodation has to meet the suitability criteria.

The statutory framework is Housing Act 1996 Part 7 for the homelessness duty, the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 for the strengthened prevention and relief duties, and the Homelessness (Suitability of Accommodation) Order 2012 and (England) Order 2003 for the suitability standards every property has to meet. The gov.uk Homelessness Code of Guidance sets out how local authorities discharge the duty.

The property standards framework is Housing Act 2004 Part 1 (HHSRS) and Part 2 (HMO licensing). Hackney operates additional and selective HMO licensing schemes in parts of the borough. Suppliers offering shared accommodation have to evidence licensing position and HHSRS compliance on every property.

This is non-regulated accommodation. CQC does not regulate temporary accommodation supply. Ofsted does not regulate it. The accountable regulator is the Council itself, through its placement officers, environmental health team and licensing team, against the statutory suitability framework and the DPS contract terms.

What are the key scoring battlegrounds?

DPS qualifications for temporary accommodation usually score on five fronts. Get all five and you are on the system. Get one wrong and the application stalls.

1. Property portfolio and supply position. Hackney will want a clear inventory of what you can offer, where it is, what household sizes it serves and what state it is in. Generic "we have a portfolio across London" sentences score poorly. Named addresses or anonymised address-by-address schedules, named bedroom counts, named occupancy capacities and named tenure types score well. If your supply is concentrated outside Hackney, expect a question about travel time to schools, GP surgeries and Hackney Service Centre.

2. Licensing and regulatory standing. Every HMO in your portfolio that meets the threshold needs an HMO licence. Where Hackney's additional or selective licensing scheme applies, those properties need the right local licence on top. The submission has to show your licensing register, your renewal cycle and your gas, electrical and fire safety certificate evidence. Missing certificates is the fastest way to lose a placement.

3. Property condition and HHSRS compliance. The Council will check your approach to Category 1 and Category 2 hazards under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, your routine inspection regime, your repairs response times and your void turnaround. Named inspection cadence, named repair target times by priority, and a named repairs and maintenance lead score well.

4. Placement responsiveness and household support. The Council needs accommodation suppliers who can take a referral and confirm a placement quickly when a household presents at the Service Centre. Your submission has to show your placement officer contact, your turnaround time on a referral, your check-in process and your approach to vulnerability flags on arrival. Hackney is not buying care, but the Council still expects suppliers to know how to handle a household with safeguarding concerns and route them back to the statutory service.

5. Contract compliance and value evidence. Suppliers have to demonstrate insurance position, financial standing, anti-money laundering checks, and the absence of unspent rough sleeping or housing enforcement actions. Where your nightly rate sits against the Hackney rate card matters. Suppliers who underprice tend to underdeliver on condition; suppliers who overprice tend to lose volume.

What is the TenderLab perspective on this opportunity?

The DPS is worth getting onto if Hackney is a real geographic priority for your portfolio, your HMO licensing position is current, and you can hold real property availability open against Council referrals without burning weeks on voids.

It is not worth pursuing if your portfolio is entirely outside Greater London, you have unresolved HMO licensing issues, or your nightly rates cannot work to the inner-London temporary accommodation cost envelope. Hackney has a high volume of households in temporary accommodation and the Council is under significant cost pressure - suppliers who cannot operate to the rate card lose placements quickly even if they qualify.

Where the fit is right, the long-running structure of the DPS rewards consistency. Suppliers who deliver well in year one tend to see referrals in year two and three as the placement team builds confidence in the portfolio. The DPS is essentially a long-form supplier relationship. What you wrote when you joined is what the placement officer reads when a household presents.

Across 200+ submissions in UK public sector accommodation and care procurement, our pattern recognition on long-running DPS arrangements is that the highest-scoring submissions almost always name a single accountable placement lead, a single property management system, a single licensing register and a single repairs cadence. Generality reads as weakness. Specificity reads as operational truth.

What pitfalls lose suppliers placements?

The five we see most often on temporary accommodation DPS submissions:

• Conflating accommodation with support. Writing the response as if it were a supported housing or supported living bid. Hackney is buying accommodation. The submission has to stay inside the housing supply lane and route care or support needs back to the statutory service.
• Vague HMO licensing position. "All our properties are licensed where required" with no register, no renewal date and no named licensing officer. Hackney's licensing team will check the public licensing register against your portfolio.
• Missing safety certificate detail. No gas safety regime, no Electrical Installation Condition Report cycle, no fire risk assessment cadence, no PAT testing schedule. The DPS contract terms expect documentary evidence at placement.
• Mobilisation hand-waving on void turnaround. "We turn voids around quickly" is not a plan. The Council expects a phased turnaround target - clean, gas check, electrical check, fire safety check, repairs sign-off, photographic record, ready-to-let confirmation - against named hours or days by priority.
• No vulnerability routing protocol. Households placed in temporary accommodation include survivors of domestic abuse, people leaving prison, care leavers and households with mental health needs. The submission has to show how your placement officer recognises a vulnerability flag at arrival and routes it to the Benefits and Housing Needs Service - without crossing into care delivery.

What is the win-rate playbook for getting on the DPS?

Six approaches we apply on every comparable accommodation supply submission:

1. Open every method statement with a 1-2 sentence direct answer. The evaluator scoring a DPS submission usually has dozens to read. Front-loading the answer means they can score the question inside the first 100 words and read the rest as confirmation.

2. Name your operational mechanism in every paragraph. Named placement lead. Named property system. Named licensing register. Named repairs target. Named inspection cadence. We track every paragraph against a 4-anchor pattern (Approach, Mechanism, Frequency, Outcome). If a paragraph cannot answer all four, it gets rewritten.

3. Mirror the Council's vocabulary. Where the spec says "suitable accommodation", say suitable accommodation. Where it references the suitability order, reference it back. Where the DPS terms list responsibilities, write your method statement to land directly on those responsibilities. Evaluator pattern-matching is a real scoring lift.

4. Submit an Accommodation Supply Evidence Pack. Hackney is buying property supply. Where the platform allows attachments, include an anonymised supply schedule, an HMO licensing register, a sample HHSRS inspection record, a sample gas safety certificate cover page and a sample fire risk assessment summary. Documentary evidence outperforms narrative on a property DPS.

5. Show your portfolio depth and your void position honestly. Suppliers who claim 100% availability across 200 units lose credibility. The Council knows what real portfolio operations look like. Stating your true average void rate, your turnaround time and your named occupancy targets scores higher than claiming perfection.

6. Submit the Tender Readiness Audit before you draft. DPS qualifications reject submissions that fail technical or financial checks long before scoring begins. A short readiness audit catches missing insurance certificates, lapsed HMO licences, expired safety certificates and outdated AML or financial documents before the submission goes in. Cheaper than losing the entry window.

What happens after qualification: placements and ongoing performance?

Once you are on the DPS, Hackney issues placement requests as households are accepted or assessed under the homelessness duty. There is no guaranteed volume and there is no fixed share of placements.

The first 30 days after qualification matter. Confirm your named placement officer and out-of-hours contact, register on ProContract for ongoing notifications, agree your referral protocol with the placement team, and confirm your nightly rate position against the current Hackney rate card.

For each placement request, expect the placement team to send a referral note with household composition, accessibility needs, area preferences, any active safeguarding flags and the proposed start date. Your turnaround on whether you can accept the placement should be inside 24 hours for live referrals. Slow responses move placements to other suppliers on the DPS quickly.

The post-placement performance regime is light on contract management meetings but heavy on individual property compliance. Expect periodic property inspections, complaint-driven environmental health visits, licensing renewal checks and a contract review against the original portfolio declaration. Suppliers who let condition slip after qualification lose placements faster than those who deliver consistently.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Hackney Temporary Accommodation DPS open to new suppliers now?

Yes. The DPS is an extension of the arrangement originally commenced in 2016 and is currently published with a deadline of 26 January 2028. New applications are accepted across the contract term through the ProContract portal.

Do I need to be a registered care provider to apply?

No. This is a housing supply DPS, not a care contract. CQC registration is not required and there is no support service attached. The Council is buying accommodation only and the statutory homelessness support sits with the Benefits and Housing Needs Service.

Is this DPS for supported living or supported housing?

No. The specification is explicit - this is accommodation only for homeless households accepted under Hackney's homelessness duties. Suppliers offering supported living, supported housing or care-linked accommodation should look at separate care commissioning routes rather than this DPS.

What licensing do my properties need?

HMOs that meet the mandatory licensing threshold under Housing Act 2004 Part 2 need a mandatory HMO licence. Properties in Hackney's additional or selective licensing zones need the relevant local licence on top. The submission has to evidence current licences for every property in your declared portfolio.

Can I join the DPS if my portfolio is outside Hackney?

Yes, but the further your portfolio sits from the borough, the harder placements become. Households placed in temporary accommodation are usually expected to maintain school placements, GP registrations and connection to local services. Suppliers with no Hackney or neighbouring borough supply tend to see fewer placements.

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Not sure where to start on the Hackney Temporary Accommodation DPS?

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Further reading on the framework: gov.uk Homelessness Code of Guidance for Local Authorities and Housing Act 1996.