Council to spend £6m on renovations

More than £6m will be spent with local companies as part of the county council’s housing stock improvement plans, the cabinet has been told.

The council has invested more than £47m since 2013 as part of its drive to meet the Welsh Housing Quality Standards (WHQS) replacing 11,000 components including kitchens, heating systems, door, windows and roof improvements in county houses.

Cabinet Member for Housing, Councillor Jonathan Wilkinson said: “The investment in the council’s housing stock is not only good news for residents but plays an important role in the county’s overall economy creating and maintaining jobs for local tradespeople.

“In the last four years 97 per cent of contracts were awarded to companies in Wales with 19 per cent going to Powys operations. The most recent tendering exercise saw 100 per cent of work going to companies in Wales and 40 per cent – worth £6.4m - to companies from Powys.

“The council had been hoping to complete the Welsh Housing Quality Standards work by March next year but these had been extended to the end of 2018 because of a change in the way we procure contracts. The delay is regretted particularly for those who are waiting for improvements to their properties but we anticipate the project will be completed two years ahead of Welsh Government targets.

“In addition to the Welsh Quality Standards investment work the county council is planning to spend around £3.7m a year funding major repairs within our housing stock,” he added.

Plans to extend the WHQS programme to the end of 2018 were approved by the cabinet last week.

Only last week we reported that Powys has also committed to developing 250 new homes using home-grown timber as part of the Wood Encouragement Policy which will also support the local economy by using local businesses and contractors to supply such timber.