Council Housing Bathroom Programme Paused from January 2022

You may be aware from recent press articles, that we’ve paused our bathroom replacement programme, as we’ve decided not to extend the current two-year contract.

We had concerns about how quickly the programme was progressing from early in the contract, as well as about other aspects beyond our control.  Our Officers gave support to the contractor over and above what was required in the contract, to try to improve the situation for tenants.

After much consideration, we decided to terminate the contract in December 2021, as the situation had not improved, and the contract was not providing best value for tenants.

In the two-year period, the contractor delivered 657 of the required 1344 replacements (this number includes the 260 void properties we made available to the bathroom contractor to aid safe continued working in a COVID environment.)

We want to provide our tenants with peace of mind that the bathroom works will continue in the summer once we’ve appointed a new contractor. These works will target the remaining properties in the Brechin area which should have been addressed in the ended contract. We’ll be contacting (by letter) any tenants who had previously been told they would get a bathroom replacement with an update on timescales in the coming weeks.

Our kitchen replacement contract which was on site last year completed satisfactorily in December 2021 with 557 kitchens upgraded. We don’t currently have plans for a further large-scale kitchen replacement contract, as only around 50 kitchens per year will be needed to maintain our properties. We’re putting arrangements in place to achieve this.

If you have any issues with your recent kitchen and bathroom installations please contact us so that we can deal with these. You can contact us:

By phone at ACCESSLine – 03452 777778

By email at HousingTechnical@angus.gov.uk

Advertisement

Housing Planned Maintenance – COVID-19 Update April 2021

In line with the Scottish Government’s guidance on easing of lockdown restrictions, we have been working closely with contractors to make sure a measured approach has been taken to restarting planned maintenance work for tenants in our properties.

The following planned maintenance contracts will restart in the weeks following 26 April 2021;

•    Bathroom Replacements

•    Kitchen Replacements

•    Energy Efficiency Works

•    Window Replacements

•    Electrical Testing

•    Electric Heating Upgrades

•    Smoke Alarm and Heat Detection Upgrades

Where tenants had already been notified of planned works pre-lockdown the relevant contractor will be in touch to arrange installation or survey visits whilst also advising of new processes which have been put in place for everyone’s safety.

If your home is included in a new contract you will receive a letter from us as well as the appointed contractor to advise of works planned and the processes related to that contract.

Please be aware that some contractors are starting to get in touch with our tenants now to confirm start dates for works, design visits, safety checks to enable external works to start etc. If you unsure about any of this please get in touch with the Housing Technical team.

As we have done throughout the lockdown period, we will continue to carry out annual servicing of gas heating systems as we are required to do by law.

We will keep our approach under regular review and provide updates as the guidance from the Scottish Government develops. Please keep an eye on the Housing Blog and our website for further updates.

You can find NHS advice on the NHS Coronavirus COVID 19 website –– the main symptoms of the coronavirus include;

•    A new, continuous, dry cough

•    A high temperature

•    Loss or change to your sense of smell or taste

We appreciate your co-operation at this time and hope you find this information useful, but if you have any queries about this post, please contact us by emailing HousingTechnical@angus.gov.uk