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Guinness unveils £226m maintenance framework
Housing association Guinness Partnership has awarded maintenance contracts worth a combined £226m over six-and-a-half years.
The 65,000-home landlord has chosen six contractors to provide various forms of maintenance services, including fire safety upgrades, for its properties in three regions.
Among other services, contractors will carry out works required following fire risk assessments, fire alarm and emergency lighting renewals and other fire safety installations.
At an estimated value of £117m, the contract for the North was the largest of the three, covering 32,000 homes situated mainly around Cheshire, Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield.
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Guinness’ in-house repairs and maintenance provider, Guinness Property, took this contract along with Wates, Kier and Fortem.
Ian Joynson, executive director of asset management at Guinness, said: “The new arrangements will deliver even better services to our customers. They will also reduce our unit costs so that we can invest more in building new homes and improving existing ones.
“Guinness Property, our in-house provider, will continue to deliver the majority of planned maintenance in the North, reflecting the hybrid model of combining the best of internal and external resources that we also employ in other areas of property maintenance.”
The second-largest contract in the framework was for the South, which is worth £65m and covers around 25,000 homes in Milton Keynes, Greater London, Essex and the South East. This was awarded to Vinci, Engie and Fortem.
Finally, the contract for the West, worth £44.2m and covering 10,000 homes around Gloucestershire, Devon and Cornwall, was awarded to Novus, Wates and Kier.
Since the Grenfell Tower fire, housing associations have spent increasing amounts on fire safety work.
In the year following Grenfell, contractors saw a 56% rise in orders of fire safety work.
Guinness said it will mobilise these contracts over the next couple of months.
As well as fire safety, contractors will cover work on kitchens and bathrooms, windows and doors, internal and external decoration, roof works, environmental works, electrical wiring and heating insulation.
