Will Buying Cheap mean Buying Twice?
Updated 08:30am 15/10/19
It’s not just Cllr Stuart Peall (Con) (pictured) Cabinet Member for Enforcement, Regulatory Services, Waste & Building control, at Folkestone & Hythe District Council who has concerns. On Oct 1st, at Win Pine House, Hythe, the Shepway Tenants & Leaseholders Board and East Kent Housing raised their concerns about Gas Call Services Limited, the new contractor for heating systems, servicing, maintenance, inspections and installation works. They are due to start the contract in just eighteen days time and will work directly to and with East Kent Housing in the delivery of the contract for all 17,000 plus Council homes owned by Canterbury, Dover, Folkestone & Hythe and Thanet Councils.
On July 3rd, P & R Installation Company Limited – the previous contractor for heating systems servicing, maintenance, inspections and installation works – contract ended after a dispute of £1.5 million, and allegations by the four Councils of Canterbury, Dover, Folkestone & Hythe and Thanet Councils, who own East Kent Housing, due to “a pattern of charging that appears to be a systemic fraud”.
P & R were replaced by Swale and others on a temporary contract 4 months, to allow the Councils to find a permanent replacement. On the 07/08/2019 in a joint procurement tender, led by Dover District Council, Gas Call Services Limited were appointed for a period of 33 months – Nov 2019 – March 2022, with a possibility of a year’s extension. The total value of the new contract with the extension is £18.5 million, approx £9 million pound cheaper than P & R’s £27 million pound contract.
One week before the Contract was awarded( July 31st) Councillor Peall (Con) raised the concern that the bid price [by Gas Call Services Ltd] was also less than the previous contractor (P& R), who had given lack of profitability as one of the reasons for termination. This was also mentioned in Report-Number-C-19-16 at Para 5.1.
Now as we understand both the Shepway Tenants & Leaseholders Group and East Kent Housing raised similar concerns amongst other things and a letter has been written to the four Council CEO’s highlighting their concerns. Will they heed these concerns of residents?
But who are Gas Call Services Limited? Well they are based in Glasgow and have their nearest office in Southhampton, according to their website. We understand that Gas Call have opened an office in Canterbury & Folkestone and are according to their website looking for qualified persons. Gas Call are ultimately owned by Duality Group Limited and has its headquarters in Liverpool. At year end March 31st 2018 Duality made a loss of £2.6 million year and had net liabilities of £5.7 million. At year end March 31st 2019 Duality made a profit up of £83,000 and had net liabilities of £5.6 million. There are two persons of significant control of the company, they are:
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Shaun Michael David Maclean (pictured)
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Martin David Holmes
So why exactly was this contract placed with Gas Call if everyone is so concerned?
Good question, one that needs to be asked of the Councils.
It’s a recipe for disaster and as a EKH tenant I am worried as the winter months set in
Folkestone & Hythe DC should not award the contract without carrying out proper due diligence on all firms seeking to win the tender. if Councilors award the contract to a firm that fails to deliver (irrespective of the low tender price) they will demonstrate (yet again) that they are not fit for purpose and stand down from electoral office. Perhaps they should listen more carefully to the concerns of their tenants and leaseholders.
I’ve been told that Gas Call has an office in Canterbury & has just opened one in Folkestone, in readiness for the new contract. They’ve also got their new van fleet ready too.
As a tenant, I have grave misgivings, frankly, about any contractor appointed by EKH!
They have always just gone for the cheapest bid possible & we’ve ended up baring the brunt of it – for the most part, to the indifference & inertia of EKH to our misgivings/complaints!!
When they first took on P & R, an engineer, who had transferred from Swale Heating, told me that P & R didn’t actually have any gas engineers , only plumbers, and a condition of the contract was to get some!!
Whilst glad to see the back of P & R, am also dreading having Gas Call.
I just hope the council does the right thing on Weds, & vote to pull away from the dreadful EKH, & bring everything back in house.
so if P&R were awarded the contract in 2017 and it’s was 27m and Gass Call have the contract for 18.5m then the original contract was 4.5m each year for 6 years . Then Gas Call only has maximum 4 years then 18.5m devises by 4 is 4.62m.!!!! I think you need to go back to school and stop with this miss information and scare mongering. The other 9 million in your calculations has already been spent!!!
P & R had a 3 year contract with a two year potential extension to the value of £27 million. P & R withdrew from the contract after overcharging was discovered, 2 years and threee months into the contract. Then Swale and others took over temporarily. Then Gas Call won the new tender on 33 month contract plus a year extension for £18 million and will start on the 1st Nov 2019. There is NO other nine million and facts are NOT scaremongering. If telling thew truth is a difficult concept for you to take on board, then we suggest …
I assume from your intimation that SV has it all wrong, is scaremongering and spreading untruths that you may not have read and understood the clear and unambiguous evidence published by EKH, all four councils, the regulator for social housing and various press sources, or is it that you may possibly be connected to the EKH management “inner circle”
As a former gas engineer for gas call services working in and around Folkestone, Dover and hythe I am surprised this firm is allowed to operate. They are defrauding the councils by sending engineers in to sabotage boilers to make a profit. Although this is forced on the engineers ,and are then sacked for refusing. I know of most of the gas engineers are not time served, but are ex taxi drivers who have done 6 week gas courses. And if you riddor report a dangerous engineer you are out of the door and it’s covered up. They are cowboys.