Council should return to days of direct labour force

I have argued over and over again that Camden Council should cease the use of outside contractors on capital works on estates- mainly because much of the works are poor and need dealing with to improve them months after the contractors have gone; that ten

I have argued over and over again that Camden Council should cease the use of outside contractors on capital works on estates- mainly because much of the works are poor and need dealing with to improve them months after the contractors have gone; that tenants and leaseholders in the main think the workmanship is overall not as good as it should be; and the leaseholder has to pay large sums, part of which is the profit margin, to the contractor. Camden are now considering having a partnership of 2 chosen contractors and the idea of having, as I have proposed, our own Direct Labour Force we can supervise with properly trained Clerks of the Works on site and our own staff; has been rejected by the Housing and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee.

So it will be large costs to leaseholders; the same lack of control on site; the same complaints re workmanship and no control by us as a Council of the workmanship and the contractors.

When I was first elected a long time ago we had this Direct Labour Force and it worked- these were OUR staff, we supervised and made sure that all was well with the works; and now we are continuing to use the outside contractors and the profit margin on the costs go to the leaseholder to meet. The costs to the leaseholder would be that much less if we had our own DLF to do the work.

I urge the Council not to keep going down this road and to use our own construction staff.

Cllr Roger Robinson

St Pancras and Somers Town Ward

Opposition lead on Housing.