New council housing repairs and maintenance service

A new repairs, maintenance and improvement service for council tenants and leaseholders in the city starts on 1 April 2020.

The new service will be run in-house by the council, following the end of our ten-year partnership contract with Mears.

While the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting delivery of the repairs service in the short-term, all is in place to complete the switch to the in-house service as planned.

The changes were agreed in 2018 following consultation with tenants, leaseholders and other stakeholders about their experiences and their priorities for the service in future.

We’re working hard to make sure the changeover goes as smoothly as possible, alongside residents who have been involved in helping to shape the new service.

Welcome to new staff

Councillor Gill Williams, Chair of the Housing Committee, said: “We’ve been planning the service for two years and are committed to delivering excellent levels of customer service. 

“Residents will recognise many of the faces carrying out repairs and voices on the phone, as a majority of staff will be coming over to the council. I’d like to welcome everyone joining us.

“The COVID-19 is obviously presenting additional challenges that none of us expected. 

“Unfortunately, it means we can currently only carry out emergency repairs, health and safety maintenance checks and work to prepare empty properties for letting.

“The outbreak is also causing delays to the process for setting up new contracts for planned maintenance and major work.

“Contracts for planned maintenance and improvement programmes were due to be awarded in July, but there are now likely to start in the autumn at the earliest. Interim measures will be put in place to cover all urgent work.” 

What the changes will mean

There’s more information in our quick guide to the new repairs and maintenance service.

These are some of the main points:

Repairs 

• Residents will still use the same phone numbers to report repairs, 0800 0526140 or 01273 294409 if calling from a mobile. 
• Repairs can also be reported online at www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/repairs or by post to Repairs Helpdesk, Housing Centre, Unit 1, Fairway Trading Estate, Eastergate Road, Brighton, BN2 4QL.
• Our commitment to start work on a repair within a set time is not changing. We’ll still start emergency repairs within 24 hours, and routine repairs will start within 20 working days. 

Due to the COVID19 outbreak, our repairs helpdesk is currently open for emergency calls only. Please avoid calling us unless you have an emergency situation. 

If your repair is not an emergency, please use our online repairs reporting form.

Planned maintenance & improvement programmes

• We’re putting individual contracts for different types of work in place. We’ve encouraged local companies to tender for these to support local business wherever we can.
• We’ve received a high level of interest and will be inviting contractors with the highest scoring bids to tender for contracts.

Major work

• We’re setting up a list of approved contractors who will be able to tender for major work. 
• Competitive tendering between contractors will help to ensure we get the best price at the best standard.

You can find more information on our council housing repairs webpage.