Mitie Moved and Other Moving Stories

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• Mitie Moved and Other Moving Stories

27 November 2015 | Updated 01 January 1970

A £40 million contract awarded in 2011 by Lewisham Homes as ended in tears as the Mitie the outsourcing company has failed to have the deal renewed over allegations of poor workmanship.

When the Labour council of Lewisham gave the £40 million five-year refurbishment contract to Mitie it was to oversee to improvement of 13,000 properties that were managed by Lewisham Homes – an Almo for the London local authority.

The story of what appears to be a catalogue of sub-standard work and deliberate cost cutting that led to Mitie losing the contract to Breyer, has been published in the current issue of Private Eye in its Rotten Boroughs’ section.

Described by a local blogger, Crosswhatfields, matters appeared to come to a head last month: ‘In the early hours of Tuesday morning, residents at Farrer House were woken by the fire brigade. Two fire engines and ten firefighters had responded to a call from a very worried resident on the top floor who was afraid a fire would break out because rain water was pouring through his ceilings and sparking the electrics.

‘The fire brigade disconnected the electrics, but were astonished to find there were no signs on site giving the number of the contractor in case of emergencies. They tried to contact Lewisham Homes and Lewisham Council to no avail. When they finally got through to someone, the response was that they were not 'overly interested' and no one was available to come out to deal with the problem.’

This pass the buck mentality is not peculiar to Lewisham – Hammersmith & Fulham council is experiencing similar problems with Mitie as the outsourced company for repairs and Pinnacle for administering the estates in the borough. At the time of its appointment the then Conservative councillor, Andrew Johnson, H&F Council cabinet member for housing, said: “Teaming up with Pinnacle will see us harness the experience and expertise of the private sector to raise standards even further and achieve the best value-for-money deal possible for our tenants and leaseholders. We welcome Pinnacle on board and long forward to a long and fruitful relationship.” In reality, it has left both  leaseholders and tenants in similar states of apoplexy.

When TwinFM contacted Mitie a spokeswoman stated: “We do not comment on individual cases.”

 

 

Retaining M&E services

ISS Facility Services has successfully retained the M&E services contract at the Livingston Designer Outlet for another three years.

It has been the incumbent supplier at the site in Livingston for eight years, supplying M&E maintenance services including automatic doors, lifts, escalators, car park barriers, CCTV and lightning protection to the 299,216 sqft site.

In addition to the M&E services, ISS will maintain the BMS controls and perform a number of compliance services on site. These include fire extinguishers, fire alarms, sprinklers, water treatment, fixed wire testing, portable appliance testing and gas certification.

The Livingston site is one of the premier shopping and leisure destinations in Scotland with over 70 retail stores, restaurants, cafes, an eight-screen cinema and adventure golf courses. It is the largest designer outlet in Scotland and managed by Realm which specialises in the asset management and development of retail and leisure property and are the largest designer outlet operator in the UK.

 

Wellcome continues

Independent M&E services provider, Optimum Group Services, has extended its relationship with the Wellcome Trust for a further two years in a contract worth £3 million. 

It will see Optimum continue to provide planned and reactive maintenance services across its property portfolio on the Euston Road, in London.

A team of 21 people will be responsible for delivering a range of services including critical M&E engineering, fabric maintenance and help desk service provision across a spectrum of differing facilities, including a corporate headquarters, public galleries, event and exhibition spaces, tenanted office building and conservation storage areas.

“The exceptional service delivery experienced since Optimum took over the maintenance contract has impressed all at the Wellcome Trust,” said Alan Aldridge, Head of Building Operations, Wellcome Trust. “In combination with this service delivery, it is refreshing to see our business partner's employees living and breathing Optimum’s core behaviours of visibility, responsiveness and trust and this has been rightly rewarded with the contract extension.”

 

Success again

VINCI Facilities has won another award – the FM category of the RICS Young Surveyor of the Year with James Dougall being handed the prize. A VINCI employee has won two years in a row now.

According to RICS, it had had an ‘amazing response’, both in terms of nominations and attendance at the awards ceremony – approximately 400 people attended the event at the Lancaster Hotel last week.

 

Belfast bound

Mount Charles Group has won a £500,000 contract at International Airport which commences from 1 December and will see the transfer of 30 staff, bringing the total employed by MCG at the airport to over 70.

The company operates catering, cleaning, vending and FM services from its Belfast base and sees the airport cleaning contract as a significant boost for the business.

“MCG saw off the competition to win this contract,” explained Graham Keddie, MD, Belfast International Airport. “Given the size of the facility, it’s important we have a service provider who understands our customer-focused approach and has the ability to deliver all we want. “Where we can do it, we will always support local companies and local jobs which is why we’re delighted that this considerable contract has gone to Mount Charles.”

For his part Cathal Geoghegan, MD, MCG, promised that as part of the contract the company “will introduce innovative technology which will provide real-time information on cleaning performance and enable the management team to focus on customer service, staff training and development”.

Picture:   It all went so wrong for Mitie – a second round of scaffolding for Farrer House, plunging homes into darkness once more.

Article written by Mike Gannon | Published 27 November 2015

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