Contractors were “spending more money on less work” repairing and maintaining council flats in Bristol than expected, auditors found. Several high rises of council flats across the city need refurbishment to ensure their fire safety, but this is costing more and taking longer than planned.
The repairs and maintenance team at Bristol City Council had a “major oversight” in refurbishing one high rise in particular, which has been plagued by botched works. Also, kitchens in one part of the city cost £1,000 more to install than elsewhere, exemplifying a “lack of control”.
A range of problems were highlighted by an internal audit into repairs, maintenance and improvements to council housing. Councillors on the audit committee grilled housing bosses about the problems during a meeting on Tuesday, October 1.
Labour Councillor Rob Logan said: “On the overspend in the high rise projects, the report here says we did less work than we expected to but we spent more than we planned to. There’s obviously some messages to be learned there. This arises from surveying practices as much as procuring practices.”
Budgets for five projects refurbishing high rises were all overspent. One housing manager was reported as saying “it’s reasonable for large refurbishment projects to be 15 to 20 per cent overspent at the end of the contract”. A “lack of contingency” in contracts means the council bore the risk, rather than the contractor carrying out the work.
Another issue is the “over-optimistic” estimates on how quickly the high rises could be refurbished. A whole year passed between when the council invited contractors to bid for the work and when they finally started on site.
The audit echoes the damning findings of the government’s Regulator of Social Housing, which recently reported that there were “serious failings” in how the council ensures the safety of its several thousands houses and flats. The regulator said repairs and damp issues were long overdue for action, and records of safety checks were missing.
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Extra staff will help the housing team, according to Craig Cook, head of repairs and maintenance. Contracts will also be managed centrally, and processes have “massively improved” since the audit.
Mr Cook said: “To support the team, we’re looking to increase additional resources to give a focused approach, and we’ve also engaged with a centralised contract-management team. We’re also looking to increase reporting to improve oversight.
“Things are absolutely happening, there’s good work in this place, and we welcome the findings from the audit to help us improve. I’m confident that we’ve improved our processes massively. I came into post two years ago, and we’ve reshaped the way we take a strategic approach to asset investment.”
One bizarre finding of the audit was that kitchens in the south of the city cost on average £1,000 more to install than in the rest of Bristol. This is because “more costly work” was needed in council housing south of the river, while the team “lacked survey resources and control over the scope of work”. Extra training is now being provided to council staff on managing contractors.
Green Cllr David Wilcox said: “I’m quite interested in why a kitchen costs £1,000 more in south Bristol than north Bristol, because presumably we’re installing the same components across the city. Was anybody monitoring this process happening and spotting that the kitchens were costing more in south Bristol?”
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Mr Cook replied: “The kitchen contracts are split across north and south. There are two key reasons: condition of properties depending on the area, but more so, contract management capability within the service. There’s lessons learned activity under way — training provided to surveyors and contract managers on how to manage and oversee contractors.
“They were monitoring it, but clearly not to the level that was required. There’s been some training provided to the team manager around how we can improve that. It’s around a centralised contract management support, so we can create a more professional service and learn from that.”
A glaring problem is the shambolic repairs programme at Gilton House, a high rise of council flats for people aged over 60 in Brislington. Contractors botched work replacing flammable cladding, leaving elderly residents to suffer through two winters without insulation. Many ended up paying exorbitant heating bills, while some chose to stay with friends and family.
Auditors found that the housing team did not create a risk register for the project, which would list everything that could go wrong and what was in place to prevent that from happening. Not writing a risk register was criticised as a “major oversight”, particularly as a lot did indeed go wrong.
Cllr Wilcox added: “That really is basic project management to include a risk report on any project of that nature, particularly if it’s costing millions of pounds. That is a major oversight in terms of how the council delivers that.”