It’s a double celebration this week for Mears and Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council, as the partnership contract reaches a 10-year milestone and is also short-listed for a national award.
Worth over £12m per year, it is the council’s largest partnering contract, delivering all the responsive repair and planned works needed to maintain and improve the borough’s housing stock.
Over the course of the decade, 4,500 new kitchens and 4,000 bathrooms have been fitted – a rate of more than two every day. New roofs have been installed on 2,000 properties and 7,000 houses and flats have benefited from new windows.
Since the contract began, a total of £70m has been invested on major refurbishment work to ensure council homes continue to meet the needs of tenants across the borough.
The partnership has also been shortlisted for the CIPFA (Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy) ‘Alternative Service Delivery Model of the Year’ award, recognising its approach to delivering service improvement.
Cllr Mandy Perkins, Executive Member for Housing and Communities, said: “It is a significant achievement for a maintenance contract in the housing sector to run for a decade, and that is testament to the hard work everyone has put in over the past 10 years.
“I’d like to thank all our staff and tenants who have offered their feedback and enabled us to continually improve and develop the service.”
David Hodgson, Executive Managing Director for Mears, said: “We are proud and privileged to work with partners who have a shared vision to make a positive difference to Welwyn Hatfield.
“Reaching 10 years and being short-listed for the CIPFA award are the result of outstanding partnership working and understanding between everyone involved, so our sincere thanks to all, and we look forward to the next five years.”
The contract runs until March 2022, and the CIPFA winners will be announced at an awards ceremony next month [April].