Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) has awarded its new five-year repairs and maintenance contract valued at £200m to two companies - City Building (Contracts) LLP and Connaught Partnerships Limited.

City Building won the contract for two areas of the city - the north east and north west and Connaught for the south area.

The new £40m per year contract will deliver a more comprehensive and customer-focussed service to GHA's 65,000 tenants and 26,500 homeowners. It will also provide better value for money and ensure speedier repairs that are right first time. Currently over 202,000 repairs are carried out each year.

The decision was made at today's GHA Board meeting and follows a robust year-long European procurement process, involving representatives of tenants, homeowners and the trade unions, senior GHA staff, specialist external advisers and independent assessors.

-- Advertisement --

Sandra Forsythe, Tenant Chair of GHA Board said: "This is good news for tenants and owners. The new contracts set higher standards which have been requested by tenants and owners - providing better quality repairs and more accessible appointments.

"A key priority will be a regular programme of maintenance of all GHA homes and improved maintenance of the surrounding areas, including the cleaning of gutters and the painting of closes.

"GHA - along with our tenants and homeowners - will actively manage the performance of the contractors to ensure they meet the high standards set out in the contracts."

Under the new contracts, staff will contact customers to confirm repairs appointments by text or phone and customers will be kept up-to-date on the progress of the repair.

The new contracts are expected to be formally signed next month and will start from 1 April 2009. Approximately 250 staff from the current single contractor City Building LLP will transfer under TUPE legislation to Connaught. Pension rights of transferring staff with Strathclyde Pension Fund will be protected. Working closely with both City Building and Connaught, GHA will continue to support Glasgow City Council's commitment to developing apprentice training opportunities in the city.

This month, as part of a programme of customer improvements, GHA officially launched its own Glasgow-based Customer Service Centre to directly handle enquiries from tenants and factored homeowners. From April next year, all repairs and maintenance service requests from tenants and homeowners will be channelled through the GHA Customer Service Centre, which will replace the City Building call centre.

(GK/JM)