Member Article

Isle of Wight deal boosts property specialist

DW Support Services (DWSS) – part of the Washington based Fastflow Group - has won a major repair and maintenance contract on the Isle of Wight worth up to £26 million.

The deal with Southern Housing Group means around 30 employees from the previous service supplier have joined DWSS via a TUPE transfer agreement.

It also marks the first venture outside mainland Britain for the rapidly expanding Fastflow Group.

The contract covers responsive repairs, void property works, cyclical decoration and planned maintenance work on 3,500 Isle of Wight homes and runs for five years with an option to extend for five more. It also provides scope for additional services to be added, including gas servicing, repairs and installations, planned refurbishment, cleaning and grounds maintenance, fire alarm testing and emergency lighting.

Meanwhile, Southern Housing Group has also extended another, similar contract it has with DWSS in Theale, Berkshire by a further five years until 2022. Worth £2.2 million per annum, this agreement secures up to 40 jobs and may create new training and employment opportunities.

Said Managing Director of Oxfordshire based DW Support Services, Colin McMahon: “We are delighted to have extended our scope of works with Southern Housing Group and look forward to providing high levels of service, while offering the best possible value to our client.

“We are also looking forward to upgrading the homes of thousands of people on the Isle of Wight, as well as delivering social benefits, to bring long term improvement to our clients’ communities. In addition, we look forward to welcoming new employees to our growing team.”

Southern Housing Group is a registered housing provider managing more than 28,000 homes across London and the South East.

Said Paul Wenham, Property, Maintenance and Investment Director: “We believe we can improve the services to our customers and achieve better value for money by appointing a single partner to deliver these works. We anticipate another successful partnership with DWSS on the Isle of Wight.”

With new headquarters approaching completion in Thame and with offices in London and Reading – and now the Isle of Wight – DWSS looks after 200,000 homes, education establishments, supported housing and care homes throughout the South East of England.

A call centre team provides responsive day-to-day support for clients, delivering 30,000 repairs a year, while planned maintenance, refurbishment and energy saving solutions are provided to 20 principle clients.

The new Southern Housing Group contracts takes the order book to almost £30 million a year. In addition, DWSSs has recently secured places on five procurement frameworks to provide property maintenance services to registered housing providers, councils, police and fire authorities and education establishments across a large area of southern England. This opens the door to a wealth of planned and cyclical work over the next four years.

In 2014 the company became a member of the Fastflow Group, a specialist in utility infrastructure, providing services to, among others, Northumbrian Water, Scottish Water, Anglian Water, National Grid, Northern Gas Network and Wales and West Utilities.

The group provides work for over 600 people and turnover this year is expected to approach £70 million.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Paul Dobbie .