Scape Group has confirmed that the Perfect Circle consortium has been appointed to its £350 million consultancy framework.

The consortium consists of Pick Everard, Gleeds and Aecom and is the first time the procurement body has chosen a joint venture.

Over four years the deal will be worth £350 million, with the Built Environment Consultancy Services framework providing consultancy services to the public sector.

The new framework will bring together the range of services available under the two existing frameworks of Scape: the National Project Management and Quantity Surveying framework; and the National Asset Management, Surveying & Design Services framework.

Scape said that the decision to merge the two frameworks was because of a series of challenges that the industry is currently facing.

The company said: “[These] include a shortage of internal industry specialists and an increased demand for consultancy expertise against a backdrop of sustained budgetary challenges.”

The consortium will be supported by around 150 SMEs as supply chain partners.

Mark Robinson, Chief Executive of Scape said that every day its public sector clients have to balance the two competing forces of rising services demand from a growing population, along with diminishing internal resources.

Robinson added: “In the current uncertain economic climate, rapid appointment, access to the right skills and advice to get the best from the public estate will be absolutely critical, which is why we have created this new all-encompassing framework, which has been uniquely designed to deliver exceptional results to our public sector colleagues.”

The Perfect Circle consortium fought off competition from a consortium of Grant Thornton, Faithful & Gould, Bilfinger GVA and Arcadis as well as individual bids from Turner & Townsend and Mace.

Robinson explained that the battle was close, which saw Scape extend its 10 day stand still period to feed back in depth to the unsuccessful bidders.