New deal to slash repair bills for Stoke-on-Trent council houses
CONTRACTORS working on council houses will only be paid for the time and materials used on each job instead of charging a set amount regardless of how long it takes.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council is to negotiate the cost-cutting changes with Kier Stoke to get better value for money from its £30 million-a-year housing maintenance deal.
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Task group: Bagh Ali
Currently, contractors are paid automatically for each job completed based on a pre-agreed schedule of charges – leading to concerns that the rewards for workmen are the same even if they rush a job or do it badly.
The recommendations were made by a dedicated task group set up to review the authority's deal with Kier.
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Councillors formed the inquiry group to mark the midway point of the 10-year contract with Kier and examine 'higher than expected' charges resulting from the billing system. A trial of the new system slashed the average price of a repair job from £85 to £65. And a separate review into inefficiency in the call centre has cut the average length of a call from 12 minutes to four minutes.
Bagh Ali, chairman of the task group, said members reviewed the contract with the needs of tenants and not the company in mind.
He added: "At the end of the day our obligation is only to the people out there who receive the service.
"There has been issues and there are always rumours about the service, but the consensus of the group was that we are happy and that things are moving in the right direction."
Mr Ali said the change in billing methods was a 'common sense' move, adding: "The whole review was about going through everything to make sure we had efficiency and value."
The council is also pressing ahead with plans to save £2 million-a-year by asking tenants to watch an advice DVD and carry out their own repairs like unblocking sinks, bleeding radiators and changing security lights.
Other changes include only fixing council-installed fences if they are dangerous, making tenants responsible for their own boundary fencing.
Repair logs from a month-long snapshot of Keir Stoke's work on city council properties show 260 tenants were visited at least five times before single jobs were completed.
The authority was billed £708,922 for repairs in January after contractors made 10,078 visits to carry out 5,613 jobs.
Council tenant Annette Bellyou, of Hamil Road, in Burslem, said: "The service has definitely got a lot better.
"Gone are the days where the phones were ringing non-stop because repairs weren't done.
"A few years ago you could be waiting on the phone for half an hour but it's sorted out a lot quicker now."
Richard Wall, head of operation at Kier Stoke, welcomed the move.
He said: "Developing innovative and efficient ways of working has allowed us to not only reduce our operating costs, but also to pass these savings on to the council – savings which can be reinvested back into properties."
Comments
by revenge2003
Monday, September 17 2012, 10:25AM
“Bog should retire and look after his wife seema who looks so miserable and his son imran who is in ireland on the run from british cops”
by Robnoxious
Sunday, September 16 2012, 8:58PM
“rubythursday- I think you might be reading this incorrectly after reading your post, and i apologise if i have got it wrong. We are not getting all the details here.But don't forget when you weigh all this up, it was put out to tender and also the council having an input on how this was to be run ,it is a joint venture.So where you say Kier are ripping the council off it is not strictly true.The set up that was originally put in place has constantly been reviewed and changed over the years With the council having the power.Do you really think that Kier would want to be upsetting the council. That would be cutting your own throat in the long term. The council have made bad decisions on how this would run, as regarding method of payment ,and other working practices, as the other post stated.Regarding your points of working practices, waiting in the van for parts etc, I'm afraid to say that is the nature of the job, not just Kier. For instance should someone have a Boiler breakdown, firstly someone , the gas/plumber engineer will come out to diagnose the fault, if the fault can be rectified there and then they will , given that they have time to do it. Now we come to the parts situation and sometimes the wait The vans will carry only so much stock and it is an impossibility to carry everything they might require. They would need a lorry and even then i would bet on it they would not have that particular part on board.Also companies won't hold loads of stock, it gets classed as dead money.Depending where these vans are when they are doing the repair.a decision gets made wether they fetch the part or someone else, on the basis he might have to travel across the city for the part to, when they are due their meal break. But people just see them sitting in the van. I would not be want to be eating my meals in a van.But don't believe that the council have nothing to do with this.they have, its a joint venture and all the media do which the council are happy to go along with is to point the finger at kier .”
by rubythursday
Sunday, September 16 2012, 6:29PM
“I have long thought that kier is milking the council. the system is designed so that the maximum amount of time is spent on each job. sounds crazy? this is the system
kier attend and access the repair and arrange for the repair to be carried out.
kier attend to repair.....at this pont they know what is required to carry out the repair BUT only organise the materials when they have attended to carry out the repair.
then they wait in their vans for as long as it takes for the materials to be delivered
once materials arrive they repair
the council is charged from the moment kier attend to carry out the repair.
the council pay them for waiting time which I have known to be over 2hours and never less that 1hour
the council needs to look at exactly how many repairs are actually carried out/completed per day and weigh this with amount charged for waiting/wasting time.”
by Desker
Sunday, September 16 2012, 1:50PM
“Funny how every few months we see another story about improvements that will save money and improve the repairs service. Did the previous 'Good Ideas' fail to work in some way then ? The fact is that no one at Stoke had heard of Vanguard Consultants until the current Chief Exec arrived. He brought them into the City Council and their thinly veiled doctrine has been cleverly forced onto the Councillors and Staff alike.
The second fact is that many staff knew from long and hard experience that the ideas would not work in practice but a culture of fear quashed any negative comments. The Vanguard Consultants report directly to the Chief Exec.”
by revenge2003
Sunday, September 16 2012, 11:36AM
“Bog is waste of space he only helps criminals and people of his own race to get of the hook.”
by Robnoxious
Sunday, September 16 2012, 10:20AM
“First question is, Why did the council let this go out to contract in the first place? Next question, If it was about saving money, how can a company who make money for profit be a better option? Does this say everything on how this council is run ,clueless on how to run anything within budget. Because on the face of it. all the closures and cutbacks of services, then being put out to private tender this seems to be the case.The private sector can make it work but the council can't. So why are we employing these people if they could not make this work in-house, its like admitting defeat. Yet within the joint venture tell the private company on how it should be run. Well why did they not do that in the first place before it went out to tender? The reason being right from the start of this joint venture the council were quite happy to have things done on the cheap,where as if you can fix it , fix it. The culture that was fed down from the top , leading to false economy on repairs. where a new part would have saved time and money. But should there be any bad publicity in this and other areas, they had their whipping boy ,Kier . They could wash their hands of it. Yet it is the council that makes policy ,as you see hear regarding fencing. The other side of the coin here is when workmen call on the arranged time and there is nobody in do they charge them .As for the number of visits per job.that would be subject to the type of job and how many different tradesmen involved .Until one part of the job gets completed ,another part can't get started it is as simple as that , as any tradesperson will tell you. But the remark , rush or do it badly is quite frankly insulting to the workforce. But if these councilors do know what they are talking about ,it is doing things badly.If there are problems to overcome ask the experts ,the people that do the job ,and put in place a suggestion scheme where you recieve a monetary reward for money saved .Win Win for everyone. But this one falls right back to the councils lap for wanting to do everything on the cheap,then it comes back to bite them, so much for their last input .”
by putmefootinit
Sunday, September 16 2012, 8:50AM
“Now we need a "new deal" to cut the costs of the councillors, especially as they are the ones that have allowed this to happen.”
by revenge2003
Saturday, September 15 2012, 9:50PM
“Bog ali is only good for helping criminals.”
by Dizzy1960
Saturday, September 15 2012, 7:08PM
“I Norris, I totally agree with what you're saying and given you a green arrow for your revelations, but will the rest of the city understand what you are on about?
Unless you speak English and speak your mind instead of following the line of the oik' in Stoke-on-Trent Schity City Council, You'll never get yourself heard"!”
by I_Norris
Saturday, September 15 2012, 6:22PM
“"Currently, contractors are paid automatically for each job completed based on a pre-agreed schedule of charges "
which somehow lead to
'higher than expected' charges resulting from the billing system
how can the charge been higher if they were pre-agreed?
Looking at Lagu2 example below will Kier Charge time for all 5 visits or just the last successfull visit?
Will Kier Charge time from when all materials are on site, or from when the first repair man arrives and then has to wait for deliveries (due to restriction on amount materials allowed in the van)”