Doncaster company wins £6m contract to refurbish 600 Liverpool homes

Westdale Services, which is based in Doncaster, has won repeat business with housing association Liverpool Mutual Homes to refurbish properties in the Anfield area of the city, just yards away from the home stadium of a team of millonaire footballers.

The Yorkshire firm has won a contract worth nearly £6m to improve 600 homes, having previously worked on a £5.4m contract for 550 homes.

Westdale has contributed to the estate’s new look by fitting a metal “cage” structure to the outside of every house and then fastened an acrylic brick-effect skin to the metal frame.

The technology means houses which had been facing demolition have been made structurally sound with tenants’ energy bills cut by up to a third, Westdale said.

There is now a waiting list for homes on the estate, according to Malcolm Kitching, one of the directors. “The fact that people are queuing up to live there rather than being desperate to leave shows the transformation that has taken place.”

Westdale, which turned over £6m last year, hopes to take that to £10m in 2011.

It has also won orders for regeneration projects in Sunderland and in Pontypool, in South Wales.

Housing associations are spending money refurbishing ageing houses because it is cheaper than demolishing them and starting again, Mr Kitching added. He owns Westdale along with Sandra Kitching, Allan Bishop and Lee Bishop.

Mr Kitching said: “Alan and I have many years’ experience in this field of work and we’ve progressed from being a small external wall insulation and render contractor to working directly for local authorities and big housing associations.”

The company is still based in former chicken sheds at Askern, in Doncaster, which have been transformed into a modern office complex using the same building applications it uses on housing projects.