A Vision for the Future

Kier Building Maintenance North’s latest Northwest contract should bring improvements to the homes and lives of thousands on Merseyside.

Kier Building Maintenance (KBM) North offers specialist skills to the social housing, public and private sectors across the north of England, providing the same flexible, tailored approach to clients whether they be social landlords, residents or caretakers.

The company is dedicated not only to improving bricks and mortar, but also to improving communities and environments as a whole, with the customer always at the centre of its work. This could include operating training programmes to provide employment for local residents, environmental projects and improvements, or simply close working with residents themselves.

This, alongside its policy of working towards continuous improvement on all its contracts, means that Kier can proudly say it has, to date, improved star ratings on every contract that has been audited by the Audit Commission through its dedication to deliver visions, not just repairs, to local people.

The company’s work in Sheffield, where it has formed a Limited Liability Partnership with the city council and is responsible for the upkeep of all the council’s buildings across the city, not just its housing, has seen it become virtually synonymous with the huge regeneration taking place across the city. Its Leeds operation has followed a similar path, and now, following on from these successes, the company is rolling the model out elsewhere, with sizeable contracts now running in Hull, Liverpool, Lincoln and Derby as well as other contracts with individual RSLs.

Kier’s growth may appear sudden over the last four years since its Sheffield contract commenced, but the expansion of its operations has been down to a carefully structured business plan which has seen it take the successful model it has used on its Sheffield and Leeds contracts, and roll it out steadily across other areas of the north so as not to overstretch itself. While the model may take the same basic format on all the contracts, Kier is keen to stress that it seeks to bring fresh ideas to each individual project, ensuring that the plan of action is unique and appropriate to each individual locality.

What the company does promise on every contract however is to remain true to its guiding principles of providing local jobs and training to people in the environs where it operates through the development of a local five-year education, training and employment plan. It also has a huge commitment to improving customer service, meaning that both residents and its own staff develop alongside the company, which benefits each community. As managing director Dave Sheridan notes: “Improving communities and bringing about social and economic regeneration is key to what we do, and the results speak for themselves. Indeed, we see ourselves as part of those communities, so it’s in our best interests to improve them too. If you look at the example of Sheffield, our first partnering contract of this type, we have achieved Beacon Partner Status due to our delivery on customer service and training and employment programmes. The people there see us as a neighbour bringing things into the community rather than a contractor coming in to take money out.”

This commitment to communities is doubtless key to Kier’s latest successful contract with fledgling LSVT landlord One Vision Housing. This RSL took over ownership of about 11,000 homes from Sefton Borough Council on Merseyside late last year, and has just appointed Kier as a partner in achieving Decent Homes and regenerating the homes and communities within the borough.

One Vision Housing chief executive Roy Williams explains: “The investment here is about more than Decent Homes. If we looked back in five years time and all we’d done was delivered homes with new kitchens and bathrooms and some nice windows, we wouldn’t have been successful. The transfer is in fact a multi-million pound regeneration vehicle, an opportunity to create jobs and training for the people of Sefton, and for us to get right into communities and make a difference. A chance to really change neighbourhoods.

“This is a key part of our partnership with Kier, and we recognise that they come with a massive amount of expertise from their work in other areas. This is a massive attraction to us as a new organisation - to have a partner with a proven track record that has delivered elsewhere. Sheffield is a three-star ALMO, and we also have aspirations to be amongst the best out there. Kier has already proved itself to be amongst the best.”

To demonstrate how Kier is about much more than physical repairs and improvements, Williams relays the story of a recent chance encounter with a Sefton tenant on one of the borough’s estates: “She mentioned how impressed she was with the customer services team on the ground and the work we’re putting in,” he says. “The tenants and residents are already feeling part of the process, but it’s about a lot more than just bricks and mortar – we don’t actually start work there till late autumn!”

In the areas where Kier has started work, clearly the benefits are even greater. The first completed home was handed over late last month, but of course there are many other factors coming into play too. Kier is holding true to its vision of ‘creating brighter futures’. It is committed to employing local people, including bringing youngsters who have been in care into the labour market, while its tenant liaison teams ensure that the tenants’ wishes and needs are both heard and achieved. As Williams notes: “The relationship with tenant’s is key to success, and tenant’s have big expectations – this is about their lives after all – and Kier has been very successful at establishing these relationships very early.”

Of course, Decent Homes has only a finite shelf life, but Sheridan doesn’t see his company’s involvement, or the regeneration, ending there: “We’re here for the long term. We’ve taken up offices locally in Kingfisher Park, appointed a new local Liverpudlian director, John Quirk, whose role is to maintain the business here in Sefton as well as expanding it. The potential for regeneration here is massive, and there are huge opportunities, both for us and for One Vision Housing as businesses and for residents themselves. If we get it right, we’ll be here for a very long time, but first we need to do some real transformational work with the tenants of One Vision Housing. That’s the platform we can build from.”

In the course of our brief meeting, the enthusiasm of both men for bringing about real improvements to lives and communities throughout Sefton shines through clearly. If their respective organisations can garner a relationship nearly as close as that Sheridan and Williams seem to have fostered in their relative brief time as workmates, the partnership should go on to great things.

As Sheridan aptly notes: “The relationship is right to build from – there’s a real enthusiasm to invest into One Vision Housing, and this can only be a good thing for local residents and communities.”