This page will be updated with the latest information about the Repairs Project to help keep residents and other partners informed of the most current news.
This page features all announcements and any documents about the Repairs Project that we are able to share with residents and partners. The announcements are listed in date order, the most recent at the top.
If you have any questions about the Repairs Project, the relevant contact information is below:
Residents should continue to report repairs in the usual ways – webform, email or phone. Please be aware, there may be some disruption to repairs services whilst this important change takes place. Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.
9 January 2025 - New contractors announced in Repairs Project milestone
Cornwall Housing (CHL) is pleased to announce that contracts to provide its new everyday repairs service have been awarded to three companies - all with a strong track record of high-quality property maintenance across the Westcountry.
CHL remains committed to working with local providers to develop a long-term repairs delivery model. As this work progresses these will be interim contracts, in place for 3 years from March 2025, and deliver services when the current Corserv Facilities’ contract ends. It is expected that the new providers will be key partners in developing these long-term repair solutions alongside local residents.
As explained in earlier announcements, the new repairs service involves splitting the county into three geographical areas to make the workload more manageable for each contractor.
WMS – covering West Cornwall
The company was formed in 2007 and in 2015 it acquired Williams and Martin Ltd, a specialist painting and decorating contractor. WMS delivers out-of-hours and maintenance across Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset. The company’s offices include its HQ in Bideford, Devon, and a base in Redruth.
Cardo (Wales & West) – formally known as LCB Group – covering Northeast Cornwall
Cardo specialises in repairs and maintenance of social housing and public sector buildings. The company has offices in Cardiff, Bristol and Exeter and serves clients across South Wales and the southwest of England.
MD Group – covering Southeast Cornwall
Established more than 2 decades ago, the MD Group is one of the biggest building services companies in the South and southwest, specialising in the affordable housing and public sectors. Its head office is in Bristol.
Ian Frazer, CHL’s Executive Director of Asset Management, said:
“The appointment of our 3 new interim repairs partners is an important milestone in our improvement plan. These companies have had to demonstrate their willingness to work with us to meet the considerable challenges of an increased demand for repairs and the need to provide a customer focused service.”
“We are already working with the partners on their mobilisation plans for the coming months. In this next phase, we’ll be organising more engagement sessions to ensure residents have the chance to raise any questions and concerns with the new contractors, and ultimately help shape the service they receive.”
Michael Sussex, Managing Director of WMS, said:
“WMS are thrilled to be in partnership with Cornwall Housing Limited, delivering property maintenance repairs in West Cornwall as part of the new Maintenance and Repairs Contract and very proud to be 1 of the 3 contractors selected. We cannot wait to start and make improvements to the service currently provided.
We will be delivering the service from our locally based office in Redruth and have worked alongside Cornwall Housing since forming our business in 2007, successfully delivering response services, 24/7 out of hours, minor works, vacant property refurbishments and planned projects. We have invested heavily in a new IT system that will provide real time information for Cornwall Housing and their residents so we can provide a 1st class service and improve the repairs process for all stakeholders.
Our main goal is to provide a service with a high customer satisfaction and the minimum disruption to any resident. Employed from the community in which we serve our Cornish operations team will build upon our local knowledge and existing client relationships delivering timely repairs and quality work for residents in the friendly and highly professional manner that WMS’ reputation has been built on over the years.”
Rhydian James, Managing Director of Cardo, said:
“We’re thrilled to partner with Cornwall Housing to deliver high-quality repairs and maintenance across Northeast Cornwall. At Cardo Group, we’re committed to ensuring timely, reliable repairs while supporting local employment and creating meaningful social value. By working closely with Cornwall Housing and engaging with residents, we aim to deliver a service that truly enhances the quality of life in the communities we serve."
Steve Devlin, Managing Director of MD Group said:
“MD Group are delighted to be appointed by Cornwall Housing to deliver repairs and maintenance work throughout the Southeast region of Cornwall. This partnership will see us working collaboratively to reduce waiting timescales, increase ‘first time fix’ repairs and deliver excellent communication to residents. Throughout this partnership, we’ll ‘Keep it Cornish’ by creating employment and training opportunities for local people, and by coordinating meaningful social value activity that helps communities thrive. We are eager to begin to work together through a shared vision that focuses on maximising resident satisfaction and delivering value for money.”
Short-listed candidates for the new home safety checks and heating contract have been interviewed and residents were involved in the selection panel. Residents will be given the opportunity to put their questions to the new contractor after the award is announced in the coming weeks. This contract is separate from the everyday repairs service and covers the whole of the county.
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
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.
New interim timescale for 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.
Advanced negotiations underway with new repairs contractors
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.
What happens next?
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.
Update on the new home safety checks and heating contract
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
Cornwall Housing (CHL) has today started the process of finding a new contractor for its home safety checks – and the project brief includes essentials that residents say are top of their priority list.
Ian Frazer, CHL’s Executive Director of Asset Management, said: “We promised to listen to our tenants and put their feedback at the heart of our service provision. The project brief contains standards which residents say are most important to them –and the contract will be awarded to the successful company on that basis.”
Today’s tender launch is a milestone in CHL’s repairs project announced on 09 July. Working to similar timescales, CHL is speaking to 3 additional contractors who will deliver an interim everyday repairs service over the next 2 years until long-term arrangements are in place. CHL has split the county into three areas to help contractors cope with demand so each will carry out repairs in a specific patch.
These interim arrangements will be awarded using procurement frameworks and will follow a similar process to the home safety checks tender exercise.
Listening to residents
Consultation with residents is central to redesigning both the home safety checks and everyday repairs service.
So far this has included a survey of 191 residents who had recent home safety visits and an online discussion group and face-to-face workshop involving 38 tenants.
What residents want from the new repairs service
Tenants’ top priorities included DBS checks and ID cards for all engineers, at least five days’ notice of appointments and flexible working extended to evenings and weekends.
Using residents’ views to design the new service
The issues residents say are most important to them are included in the new repairs contracts in the form of 44 separate actions.
Full details of the feedback and how it’s being used to co-design the new service are available here:
CHL will be inviting residents to join a panel to put their questions to successful contractors during “engagement days”.
Why should residents believe the repairs service will improve?
Ian Frazer has this message for tenants: “I understand that residents might be sceptical that things are going to get better. We know Cornwall Housing has made mistakes in the past but this really is the dawn of a new era.
“We have a new management team, we’re updating IT systems to closely monitor repairs so we can nip potential problems in the bud and we’re completely redesigning the way the service is delivered.
“Change won’t happen quickly, and I ask tenants to bear with us while we tackle the inevitable teething problems which come with introducing a new way of working with new contractors. But we’ve started building the bedrock for a high-quality repairs service which our tenants have every right to expect.”
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
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.
CHL has taken this opportunity to rethink how repairs should be delivered to residents and recently carried out an exercise to gauge interest from contractors about working in Cornwall.
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 business, 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.
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 9 until 21 July and sent to 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
