Today Cornwall Housing (CHL) has announced plans to change the way it delivers repairs to thousands of tenants across Cornwall.
The organisation, which manages over 10,000 properties on behalf of Cornwall Council, will be changing the contractor responsible for carrying out its repairs, as well as rethinking the way repairs are delivered to provide a better service for residents in the long-run.
To complete this work, which will initially take approximately 8 months, Cornwall Housing is today launching its repairs project.
Ian Frazer, Executive Director of Asset Management, said: “Residents of Cornwall Housing will know only too well that we have struggled to deliver a good repairs service. There are many reasons for this, but it largely comes down to the vast area a contractor needs to cover, along with the lack of available trades in the region, which creates long waiting times. This repairs project is our line in the sand and aims to bring about real and lasting change for the better for our residents.”
What is the repairs project?
Earlier this year Corserv Facilities, the main contractor delivering repairs for CHL, advised that they did not intend to bid for a new contract when the current one ends in March 2025.
As CHL were already thinking about how best to deliver repairs in the future, this decision provided us with the opportunity to make changes within a project that has a really clear deadline, with the ultimate aim of achieving long-term improvements to the repairs service.
Neal Edmonds, Head of Repairs for CHL, explains: “It’s incredibly important that we work with contractors who have the capacity (enough people and skills) in their business to be able to deliver the number of repairs needed across the whole of Cornwall. This has been a challenge in the past. We’re really pleased that three large contractors engaged with us during market testing.”
Learning from previous experience and listening to the contractors during market testing, CHL has decided that the repairs contract needs to be delivered by multiple businesses, because the geography is too large to be easily managed by just one.
CHL will, therefore, be splitting the county into three areas called ‘patches’ for repairs (and three contracts) to help contractors manage the number of jobs received and the travel time needed to fix problems in residents’ homes. We believe this arrangement will be better for residents, as they will have a single contractor managing repairs in the area they live, who can provide a more focussed service.
CHL has also decided to issue a separate contract for home safety checks because the skills and experience needed to complete gas (and all heating types) and electrical testing are very specific. This mechanical and electrical contractor will cover the whole county providing servicing and testing, as well as heating breakdowns, but will not get involved in everyday repairs.
This means that repairs delivery for CHL will be split into four contracts, delivered by four different contractors, helping to tackle some of the fundamental problems with the current repairs service.
Choosing the contractors – 3 x repairs contracts
CHL is speaking to the three interested contractors who are on compliant frameworks to put interim arrangements in place to continue to deliver repairs to residents whilst long-term arrangements are organised.
This exercise will take place from mid-August and is expected to last until November. The interim repairs contracts will be in place for 2 years from 1 April 2025. During those 2 years, CHL intends to complete an open tender exercise to appoint long-term repairs strategic partners for the following 10 years.
Choosing a contractor – 1 x home safety checks contract
CHL will be carrying out a separate open procurement exercise for the home safety checks, servicing and heating breakdowns contract, which will be open for bids from mid-August for 10 weeks. After that there will be a period to evaluate bids from all contractors who apply, as well as speaking to them directly, before making the final decision about who to award the contract to.
The contract for home safety checks, servicing and heating breakdowns will be in place for 5 years from 1 April 2025.
Announcing new contractors
CHL plans to announce all new contractors by the end of 2024 and will then work with them to make sure they are ready to carry out repairs and home safety checks from the 1 April 2025.
Consulting with residents
CHL intends to involve residents in designing services and influencing decisions throughout the repairs project.
The first opportunity for residents to get involved is a home safety checks survey, which will be live from 10 until 21 July and sent to 2,500 residents who have had a home safety visit within the past 6 months.
The next opportunity will be an on-line discussion group being held on 23 July to talk about home safety checks service requirements, customer commitments and procurement questions.
The third opportunity will be a face-to-face workshop on 25 July to discuss repairs service requirements, customer promises and the procurement framework questions that will be put to contractors.
CHL is committed to working with residents to make this important change, and there will be more opportunities to get involved throughout the repairs project later in the year and during 2025.
A message from Ian Frazer, Executive Director of Asset Management about repairs services:
“Making changes of this size can be disruptive, and whilst we will do our best to continue to provide services to our residents, we would like to ask for people’s understanding if they experience some difficulties over the coming months.
“Our long-term aim is, of course, to provide the best, most efficient and effective repairs and home safety checks services possible, but that is likely to take some time to achieve. In the short-term, residents may experience longer wait times and other challenges with our repairs services.
“We will continue to work with CFL and a number of other contractors to help us continue to deliver a repairs service to our residents. These arrangements will be in place from now until early 2025.
“We are committed to keeping our residents informed and involved during this period of change and we will provide regular updates on our website and social media. We’d like to thank residents for their patience and understanding in advance.”
Residents should continue to report repairs in the usual ways – webform, email or phone.
If residents or contractors have any questions about the repairs project, please email info@cornwallhousing.org.uk
Email: info@cornwallhousing.org.uk
Telephone: 0300 1234 161
