Standards raised as whg awards major contracts

Published by kerri smith for whg in Housing and also in Communities

Leading housing provider whg has awarded its grounds maintenance and cleaning contracts to current provider Pinnacle PSG.

The national organisation, which has a base in Bloxwich, proved successful following a competitive tender process involving whg customers.

The contract - worth more than £7.5million - will commence on 1st April 2012 and last for five years, until March 2017. Pinnacle PSG will provide cleaning and grounds maintenance services to whg’s 19,000 homes across the borough of Walsall.

The service standards across both areas have been significantly raised, following a review and customer consultation. Among the improvements is the introduction of a grass collection service after every cut.

Gary Brookes, whg Head of Housing Services, said: “Our customers have told us what they rate about the grounds maintenance and cleaning services and what needs to be done better.

“We’ve listened to their feedback and acted on it by expanding the grounds maintenance service to cut and collect on every grass-cutting visit, double the frequency of leaf collection and ensure shrub beds are litter-picked more often, to name but a few of the improvements.”

whg is responsible for almost 1,000,000 square metres of grassed area – equivalent to 150 football pitches – which are regularly mown and has 7,200 linear metres of hedge to maintain. The number of communal windows which require cleaning in all low and high rise blocks of flats and community rooms total 19,950.

A number of tenant inspectors, all whg customers, were part of the panel to review and award the contracts.

Customer Dougie Partridge was among those involved and said: “We reviewed the current service and considered where improvements were needed. We then worked with the team at whg to look over the applications and weigh up which supplier could do the best job and provide good value for money.”

Raaj Bharania, Pinnacle PSG Head of Service, said: “Pinnacle PSG has been delivering quality services on behalf of whg for the past five years and we are delighted this partnership will continue to thrive.

“We particularly look forward to strengthening our relationship with local residents, who have played an active part in the procurement process, and delivering the service and value for money that they expect.”