A Mayoral Decision is required to enable London Borough of Tower Hamlets to ‘directly award’ a contract to Look Ahead Care and Support for the provision of support services at the Hackney Road Homeless Hotel. LBTH has put in a bid to the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) “Next Steps Accommodation Programme” for money to re-envision Hackney Road Homeless Project as a complex needs service for rough sleepers who have been brought off the streets through the ‘everyone in’ directive during the Covid-19 lockdown and who now need a stable period in supported accommodation. One of the conditions of the bid is that services start on 1st April 2021. To ensure that this happens we have been in negotiation with the contract provider - Look Ahead Care and Support - the current lower needs service at Hackney Road. The requirements and timescales as set out by MHCLG reduce the likelihood of a successful competitive process so for expediency we are therefore seeking formal agreement to the Direct Award of Contract to Look Ahead Care and Support for a four year period from 1st April 2021 – 31st March 2025.