Council repair firm faces fine as catalogue of problems uncovered

Morrison, which maintains 37,000 council homes in south and west Leeds, was given three months up to June to improve its services.

The company is just over a year into a five-year £35m-a-year contract to look after homes for the authority.

Nearly 1,100 complaints against Morrison, relating to everything from quality of service to attitude and even damage, had been received by two of the council’s housing companies up to June.

Coun Peter Gruen, the council’s executive member for neighbourhoods and housing, said: “I think in general with a three-month improvement process it was clear to the company that we were dissatisfied and they needed a step change and improvement.

“We are consistently reviewing performance and people only continue to work for us if they reach satisfactory performance as set out in the contract and agreed by them in the contract – it was part of what they promised to do.”

He said that since the council’s review started, he believes that none of the senior Morrison workers involved in starting the contract with the council are still working in the city.

Morrison is believed to have made changes to its senior management team, improved its IT systems and brought in extra staff to clear a backlog of jobs in a bid to save its ailing contract.

The firm, which has been paid more than £43m by the council since April 2011, oversees the maintenance of homes under the control of the council’s Aire Valley Homes and West North West Homes.

At the height of complaints, the council received 124 complaints about the company in March this year. Morrison was chosen by the council to maintain council homes from April 2011 until 2016, with a possible five year extension.

Coun Gruen said: “There has been some improvement on some key issues in the last three months as the company has changed senior personnel, brought in fresh resources and we have made supplementary arrangements to clear the backlog. Complaints regarding repairs have begun to fall.

“In other areas there has been little or insufficient progress and we have decided we need to tackle these now.”

He added: “We will make deductions for under performance as necessary.”

It is thought that performance-related fines, within the terms of its council contract, can’t be invoked until the review of Morrison’s work is discussed.

So although no fines have officially been deducted from the multi-million pound contract, it is thought there are a number on the horizon for the firm.

A spokeswoman for Morrison said: “We recognise that there have been issues on these contracts and we are working in partnership with Leeds City Council to significantly improve repairs and maintenance services.

“Morrison has not been fined by Leeds City Council for any failures in our contract with them, nor have we breached any terms of our contract.

“There is a mechanism within the contract, which exists in all large contracts, that allows for financial penalties to be applied based upon performance against KPIs, however, no penalties have been applied to Morrison to date.”

She said that the 1,085 complaints they received in the 14 months of the contract up to June this year represent less than one per cent of all the repairs undertook.

The spokeswoman added: “We fully accept that there is room for improvement and everyone is working exceptionally hard to ensure all residents are satisfied with their repairs.

“The improving performance is reflected in our customer satisfaction figures which are above 98 per cent on both contracts.”