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London council considering bringing housing management service in-house
Hammersmith and Fulham Council is considering bringing its entire housing management service in-house.
The service, which manages tenancies, is currently split into a north team, which is directly delivered by the council, and a south team, which is outsourced.
The council’s officers have recommended that the service in the south, which was outsourced to Pinnacle in 2013, comes back in-house when the current contract ends in June 2023.
Several options are on the table, including an extension of the current contract or a re-procurement process, where delivery of the service will continue to be outsourced.
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But the preferred option tabled by officers is bringing the service back under council control.
A majority of residents (60%) also backed a move in-house during a consultation.
Of the remaining, 31% had no preference and 9% preferred an outsourced service.
The council expects that the cost of delivering the service in the south for the first five years will be £8.3m, similar to what a contract extension with Pinnacle would cost.
According to a council report, the key benefits of directly delivering the service are predominantly around improving service quality.
It said that uniting the service into a one-team structure would ensure “consistency of practice, process, and culture”, meaning residents across the borough interact with a single housing management service.
It said the council would be unrestrained by contractual terms and conditions “which make negotiating changes to outsourced contracts laborious, time-consuming and costly”.
According to the report, a move in-house would increase council officer visibility on estates and among residents, “improving communication and building effective working relationships which benefit residents, through manageable patch sizes”.
The council’s cabinet will consider the report at a meeting on Monday.
The news follows a number of councils opting to bring their services back in-house in recent months.
Lambeth Council revealed in November that it was planning to fold its housebuilding company back into the local authority after a review slammed its “very poor” delivery.
A few months earlier, Lewisham Council announced a consultation with social housing tenants and leaseholders on proposals to bring housing management services back under its direct control.
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