- The company currently spends around £2.4 million a year on immediate repairs and £6.3 million on planned maintenance.
- In 2013 nearly 35 per cent of the immediate cost was spent on buildings repairs, with a smaller percentage spent on electrical fittings and plumbing and a very low percentage spent on heating and ventilation and internal decoration.
- Andium Homes use a condition survey to identify the level of work required to bring properties into a decent condition, with most responsive repairs working on a pre-priced system.[/breakout]
The report, by Comptroller and Auditor General Karen McConnell, said that Andium Homes needed to make improvements to its management of ‘responsive repairs’.
The company, which took over from the Housing Department last year, runs 4,500 units of social housing in the Island and currently spends £2.4 million a year on immediate repairs and £6.3 million on planned maintenance.
The report made a number of recommendations on how to make repairs better value for money, including introducing a system to monitor contractors’ rates.
Now, senior management at Andium have been called to a public hearing on Thursday 26 February.
Deputy Andrew Lewis, committee chairman, said: ‘We are inviting the chief officer and other representatives of Andium Homes to explain how they are responding to the Comptroller and Auditor General recommendations.
‘In particular, we want to ask how fast they will be working to secure better value for money on responsive repairs as there have been a number of complaints from tenants.
‘We are not looking at individual cases, but we want to ensure the process and structure to provide the repairs is correct.
‘We will also be inviting tenants forum representatives to discuss how Andium can use input from tenants to drive up standards.’
Tenant representatives who would like to speak at the PAC hearing are invited to register their interest by contacting the PAC office by emailing scrutiny@gov.je or by calling 441069.
The committee expects to report its findings to the States by the end of April.
Meanwhile, it was announced that more than 140 flats could be built in St Helier if a major development is approved at a planning meeting this week.
Andium Homes has applied for permission to demolish five low-rise La Collette flat blocks, containing 59 homes, so they can be replaced with five larger blocks to provide 147 new units.
The proposed development would see the number of flats more than double, but will mean that the existing high-rise tower at the site could be kept.
The planning application for the redevelopment states that the site has some ‘substantial issues to resolve’ and comes with challenges relating to the demolition of listed buildings at the site, which receive extra protection from development.
It adds that delivering ‘higher density and better-quality accommodation’ must be considered, despite the status of the current buildings.
Planning has recommended the plans be approved, but the Planning Applications Panel are due to make a decision on Thursday 19 February.
The panel is due to meet at 9.45 am at St Paul’s Centre in Dumaresq Street to discuss a number of other applications and requests for reconsideration of previously refused projects.
Planning approval to demolish a four-bed house in St Peter’s Mont a la Brune to make way for two new apartments and two further homes is also being sought.
On the same day, a quarterly Scrutiny hearing will take place with Social Security Minister Susie Pinel in the Le Capelain Room of the States building between 10 am and 11.30 am.
Andium Homes was named after an early Roman name for Jersey.
Andium, which translates roughly to ‘the large island’, was the name given to Jersey in the first century BC. Over the years the Island has been known by a number of names, including the better-known Roman version of Caesarea.
Leaflets sent to States tenants announcing the name in January 2014, six months before the company was created, declared that the new moniker ‘marks the beginning of an exciting chapter in the provision of social housing in Jersey’.
‘We wanted to include a reference to Jersey in our name to reflect our pride in the Island and our heritage,’ the leaflets stated.
The Housing department was transformed into Andium Homes on 1 July last year, with a board of seven members appointed soon after.
It was claimed that the change would mark a new chapter for social housing in Jersey and was designed to more effectively create affordable housing for Islanders in need.
