As Cornwall Housing (CHL) nears the “go live” date for its new repairs service, it’s made difficult decisions about the best way to manage this period of considerable change.
CHL’s top priority is tenant safety – so the organisation is committed to the prompt delivery of emergency and urgent repairs throughout the staged and complex process of handing over the service from Corserv Facilities to new contractors.
To uphold this commitment, CHL is introducing a new Interim Repairs Policy, which sets out the standards for a service that prioritises emergency and urgent repairs.
Under this policy, emergency repairs – such as roof and gas leaks, loss of water and exposed wires - will still have a target to be complete within 24 hours. Urgent repairs, including damaged bannisters, blocked toilets and a running overflow, will continue to have a target of completion within 3 working days. Repairing extractor fans and a leaking roof have an urgent target of 7 working days.
Any work assessed as routine will be placed on a 9-month waiting list. This includes replacing glass after boarding up.
Planned repairs – such as timber rot, window and door replacements and path repairs - will go on a 12-month waiting list.
Ian Frazer, CHL’s Executive Director of Asset Management, said: “I know our residents will be disappointed about the phasing of this service. It’s a decision we’ve taken with great reluctance, but we feel it’s right and necessary after examining all other available options.”
“Unfortunately, in this highly challenging transition phase we’re not going to be able to meet all residents’ requests as quickly as they and we would like so we have to make some really tough decisions about priorities. We hope our tenants understand that their safety is paramount and it’s the one area where there’s no room for compromise or delays. The new interim policy commits to the same standards for urgent and emergency repairs.”
The new policy is effective from Thursday 10 October 2024 and will be in place until we assess that the new repairs service has the capacity to return to our standard repairs commitments. Repair requests logged before today’s announcement will be reviewed.
CHL is now in advanced negotiations with 3 contractors to deliver the new everyday repairs service. Using procurement frameworks, contracts will be awarded on a 2-year interim basis until longer-term arrangements are in place.
The current process involves looking in-depth at the contractors’ ability to deliver the service, answering their queries and making any adjustments to their contract proposals.
CHL managers will be seeking assurances on a range of core requirements – covering areas such as competitive pricing, health and safety standards and robust IT systems – before contracts are awarded.
CHL hopes to announce the successful contractors by the end of the calendar year. Residents will have the chance to meet them during the hand-over from current provider Corserv Facilities, whose contract ends in April 2025.
With the new service, the county will be divided into 3 areas – northeast, south east and west – with each contractor providing repairs in its own patch. But the companies will be working in partnership rather than in competition, so they’ll be supporting each other to cover any capacity problems during peak demand.
As detailed in earlier announcements, the contract for home safety checks and heating is separate from the everyday repairs service. This contract, which covers the whole county, went out to tender at the end of August. Home safety checks are unaffected by the new interim repairs policy.
Tenants will be involved in questioning four short-listed contractors in mid-November. The contract award will be announced in December and the successful company will start taking over the service from Corserv in early 2025.
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
