Haringey Council is poised to extend a disrepair contract, valued at a total of £1,428,560, in a private session at the Cabinet Member Signing meeting on Thursday, 7th August 2025. The press and public will be excluded from the discussion.
The agenda for the meeting at Alexandra House includes a motion to exclude the press and public during a discussion of the exempt report on the disrepair contract. The reason cited is that the report contains exempt information as defined in Section 100a of the Local Government Act 1972, relating to the financial or business affairs of particular persons and information subject to legal professional privilege.
The Public reports pack reveals that the council is considering extending existing contracts with four suppliers: DCK Construction Limited, ICB General Build and Civil Eng Ltd, Foster Property Maintenance Ltd and Milestone South East Ltd. These contracts are for repair services aimed at reducing the backlog of disrepair cases within the borough's social housing stock.
The council entered into these contracts to address legal claims for disrepair, with each contractor having a spend limit of £499,999 and a contract duration of up to two years, commencing on 4 November 2024. The Disrepair Contract - Extension Report states that these contract values are expected to be exhausted in late Q1 or early Q2 of 2025/26, necessitating an extension to align with the approved budget. The procurement exercise to establish medium to long-term contracts is expected to be completed by Q4.
The recommendations include extending the contracts, with 100% extensions for DCK Construction Ltd and Milestone South East Limited, and 43% extensions for ICB General Build and Civil Eng Ltd and Foster Property Maintenance Ltd. The decision to grant different percentage extensions was based on the existing run rate of each contractor. According to the report, a rebalancing exercise will be undertaken following a benchmarking exercise, to issue more work to the cheaper suppliers in the short term, both being granted 43% extensions, and achieve higher output to mitigate differential in run rate between suppliers over the period of the extension and better enhance value for money considerations.
This extension is intended to allow the service to establish suitable medium to long-term contracts following a procurement exercise expected to be completed by Q4. According to the report pack, The extension will allow the service to put in place suitable medium to long term contracts, following a procurement exercise expected to be completed by Q4, to prevent service delivery and financial risks associated with failure to complete work at an adequate scale and frequency.
The report pack emphasises the importance of maintaining consistent repairs to reduce legal costs and achieve the council's strategic objective of clearing the historic works backlog. Alternative options, such as allowing the contracts to expire, utilising the Direct Labour Organisation (DLO), or procuring new contracts without extending existing ones, were considered and rejected.
The Agenda frontsheet notes that Councillor Sarah Williams is the Cabinet Member presiding over the meeting.