Reshaping the client/contractor model
After struggling to retain major repairs contractors, a small central London housing provider had to come up with a Plan B
As the materials and skills shortages take hold, organisations operating on tight margins are being forced to innovate if they want to upgrade or maintain their stock.
The problem is particularly acute for Soho Housing Association, which owns around 900 homes in central London. The economics of working on a small number of properties in a location that is harder to access has seen contractors reluctant to take on jobs.
“Four contractors have walked away from us,” says Barbara Brownlee, Soho’s chief executive. “So we are being forced to look at different models now.”
You’re hired!
The model that Brownlee and her team are now exploring is one that could help solve several problems, including how to upskill workforces more quickly and how to experiment with ways to retrofit homes for the net zero-carbon agenda. Soho has asked contractors to use their apprentices and trainees, under supervision, to work on its void properties initially, before potentially also using them for reactive maintenance and even capital works.
“For us, it seemed like a no-brainer,” says Brownlee. “But I think if you’re a contractor, there’s a lot to think about, because they all have their apprenticeship scheme set-up, and we’re asking them to break out of that and come and do something different with us. But we’re saying you can look at sustainable specifications; let’s look at piloting different insulation approaches; different ways of saving heat for residents. Let’s look at doing something with a void we wouldn’t normally do to try to experiment with making more properties sustainable.”
The aim of this proposed new model isn’t to get repairs and maintenance done on the cheap, but rather to make sure the work is still done to the standard expected from a major contractor, where previously they were being done on an ad hoc basis by individual tradespeople.
Barbara Brownlee CEO, Soho Housing Association
“For us, it seemed like a no-brainer. But I think if you’re a contractor, there’s a lot to think about, because they all have their apprenticeship scheme set-up, and we’re asking them to break out of that and come and do something different with us.”
Decarbonisation solutions
“It’s not that we want it to be cheap,” explains Brownlee. “Major contractors have walked away from every small organisation in central London [but] I want [the work to be] at a high standard and I want it to be sustainable and ongoing.”
For the contractors, the model would allow them to train and upskill their workforce in a real environment and allow them to develop new decarbonisation solutions at the same time, according to Brownlee.
“It gives them a free training environment,” she says. “It gives them a mass of things to put their name to during this time when we’re all meant to be really developing and looking for sustainable solutions in residents’ homes.”
And although she accepts that larger housing providers “have more sway” in negotiations over repairs contracts, Brownlee also believes the model could be used more widely than just at small landlords.
‘Do it entirely differently’
“I think if I was a large G15 [association], I'd be interested in [running a] tiny pilot somewhere. If I had an estate where I had really good relationships and a way in to talk to the residents, I would probably use my current contractor but I’d say ‘do it entirely differently’. So for these 100 properties, give them one supervisor, a fully skilled, trained-up worker, and eight apprentices and do everything that estate needs. Do it for six months and let’s see how it works.”
