Ross House: Is this another dodgy £1m contract?

Posted on June 14, 2023 by shepwayvox in Shepwayvox // 4 Comments

How do you win a million pound contract when you don’t have the necessary accreditation to even tender for the contract?

Folkestone & Hythe District Council recently announced that Ross House has had a complete makeover.  Published on 6 June a Council press release announced on their website:

Warm welcome for housing improvements

There is no mention of the Contractor in the Council Ross House press release . 

The money for the Ross House retrofit came from the Council’s successful Wave 1 bid to the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) announced on the 7 Feb 2022. The Council were awarded £1,989,090, from the SHDF.

This is set out in Report Number C/22/59

In the report, it makes clear four companies have been awarded the contracts to improve the efficiency of 125 homes, in Wave 1 of retrofitting council owned homes.

The companies awarded the contracts were:

  • Vinci Construction UK Ltd – 50 properties
  • United Living (South) Ltd Living – 35 properties
  • Aran Insalation Ltd – 24 properties
  • Jenner Contractors) Ltd – Ross House – 16 properties

Vinci, United Living and Aran’s joint contract award value, to retrofit 109 Council owned homes was, an estimated total value of £3m (net). There was no set award value. The contract was awarded on the 24/06/2022. It started on the 01/07/2022 and according to the Council contract register is due to end on the 31/07/2023.

To undertake social housing retrofitting, the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund requires the selected project contractor to be PAS 2030 certified, and on the TrustMark register. PAS 2030 cannot be outsourced, nor learned on the job. 

PAS 2030 is the industry specification to which all contractors and installers must be certified, and compliant, when carrying out energy efficiency measures in existing dwellings under government initiatives.

PAS 2030 sets out the requirements for installation procedures, the competence of operatives, and overall requirements for quality that all installers will follow to ensure work carried out has met the required standard.

Contractors who are compliant and PAS 2030 certified can register to be TrustMark approved. TrustMark is the Government Endorsed Quality Scheme, that provides consumers with the assurance that they are engaging a firm that has been thoroughly vetted to meet required standards, and has made a considerable commitment to good customer service, technical competence and trading practices.

So we downloaded the full TrustMark Registered_Businesses spreadsheet; which holds all 11,780 companies on the register – which anyone can download – to see if the the four companies named in Report Number C/23/01 were PAS 2030 certified.

According to TrustMark’s data, Vinci Construction (UK) Ltd are PAS 2030 certified, so are United Living (South) Ltd and Aran Insulation Ltd. Each of them are on the TrustMark register. The screenshot below comes from the Council contract register, a publicly available document.

However, Jenner (Contractors) Ltd are not PAS 2030 certified according to TrustMark register. And neither can any of the three companies outsource their PAS 2030 accreditation to Jenner’s. 

TrustMark have said in an email response

If your business is wanting to carry out any work on ECO4 or any other Government Schemes you will be required to have the relevant PAS/MCS certification as well as being TrustMark registered.

They’ve followed up with:

Following a review of the details provided, a business will not be able to lodge completed SHDF work in the TrustMark Data Warehouse unless they hold TrustMark Registration for the trade in question on or before the date of completion. Jenner Contractors Ltd do not hold TrustMark registration at this time.

The Installation Assurance Authority state:

All retrofit installers who want to install one or more specified EEM’s under public funded schemes… need to be PAS 2030 certified to access these schemes.

And Social Housing Retrofit said in a response to questions about the necessity of company’s tendering, for contracts, for Social Housing retrofitting, need to be on the register, and PAS 2030 cannot be outsourced to any other party, or learned on the job:

I can confirm your understanding of PAS 2030 is correct. 

How then did Jenner (Contractors) Ltd win a million pound contract to retrofit 16 homes at Ross House, when all the evidence appears to demonstrate they could not have tendered for the contract as they did not have PAS 2030 accreditation, according to the TrustMark register?

On the 17/02/2022, Jenner (Contractors) Ltd were successful in their tender. There reward, a contract award value of £1,024,989, and an estimated total contract value of £1,479,262.88. The contract start date was the 1 June 2022, end date 30 June 2023. They completed the job May 2023.

Folkestone & Hythe District Council contracted Jenner (Contractors) Ltd to upgrade the building fabric, fully insulate all external walls, provide Air-Source heat pumps and photovoltaic solar panels in order to achieve an overall EPC rating of ‘A’ at Ross House.

The Council’s purchase orders (PO) data, shows two POs to the value of £808,846 (net) . POs are a legally binding document created by a buyer (The Council)  and presented to a seller Jenner (Contractors) Ltd. Much like your “cart” on Amazon or Ebay, a purchase order is essentially a list of what you want to buy. It lays out the order details, including quantity and types of products the buyer needs, as well as payment terms and delivery details.

The Council Payment To Suppliers data show Jenner’s have received £513,201, between Sept 2022 and Jan 2023. The data for the POs, and the Payment To Suppliers for April, May, and up to the 30 June, when the contract was due to end, has yet to be published.

In the Council’s Press release on the Ross House retrofit, issued on the  6 June, states:

Cllr Rebecca Shoob (pictured), Cabinet Member for Housing and Homelessness, said: “This work will go some way in helping us meet our target of all council-managed homes achieving an energy performance certificate of band C by 2030.”
“The improvements will mean tenants’ homes are better insulated and more comfortable to live in, as well as reducing the carbon they emit.”
We ask Cllr Shoob, how Jenner (Contractors) Ltd could tender for the retrofitting contract, as they are not PAS 2030 accredited?
And how could they win the contract with an estimated total contract value of £1,479,262.88 when they are not on the TrustMark register, nor had PAS 2030 accreditation needed to tender for the contract?
What due diligence was under taken by the Council on Jenner (Contractors) Ltd to ensure they were PAS 2030 compliant?
The Council must have known there was a requirement for PAS 2030 registration, they have Amandeep Khroud (in pink), who is the Council’s Assistant Director – Governance, Law and Regulatory Services. She is also a statutory officer. 
Of those who prepared Report Number C/22/59, and are named at the end of the report:
Roy Catling, Asset and Development Lead Specialist and;
Andy Blaszkowicz, Director, Housing & Operations
Only Andy Blaszkowicz remains in the building.
Roy was the fifth person to leave the building who worked in Andy’s Housing department. Roy left in Feb 2023. He worked for the Council for 2 years 6 months. Prior to his arrival at our Council, Roy worked as an Asset Manager, for Gravesham Borough Council, for 4 years 4 months. Now Roy has gone, who else is there left to dismiss?

The works will improve the overall thermal performance of the building leading to a reduction in the carbon footprint and benefiting the tenants of the sixteen flats with reduced energy costs. This will be achieved by changing the heating systems form Gas to Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHP), installing a PV system to each flat, applying an External Wall Insulation (EWI) system to the external facade of the building and upgrading the insulation to the loft space and the ground floor underfloor void. All these works are being installed to the current guidelines to secure PAS accreditation.

Alongside works to create energy efficiencies the entire building is being aesthetically improved. Each flat is being refurbished with a new kitchen installed and redecoration throughout. Refurbishment of the communal areas includes new staircase balustrading and handrails as well as overall redecoration and new floor coverings. A general upgrade of the external areas completes the works and will include new access steps from the car park, a new bin store, drying areas and cycle storage.

Now we can’t blame the currently elected Green Cllrs, Lib Dem Cllrs, Labour Cllrs & one independent Cllr for this mess. The contract was awarded under a Tory led adminstration. Sitting Cllr, David Godfrey (Con), was the former Cabinet Member for Housing and special projects, surely he should have some knowledge of what was happening, after all, retrofitting council homes was part of his portfolio.
Of course, this warrants an investigation, we honestly believe the contract award value of £1m, ought not to have happened. According to all the evidence, Jenner Contractors Ltd have not up until today Wednesday 14 June, been on TrustMark’s register. Nor are they PAS 2030 accredited, according to the publicly available information held by TrustMark.
At the time of this happening Charlotte Spendley, the Council’s former s151 Officer, another statutory officer, was at the financial helm of the good ship Folkestone & Hythe District Council. She left the building in March 2023. 
So, who is their left to investigate except…
We’ll leave you to ponder that.
Jenner’s have been contacted for comment at the time of publication
The Shepway Vox Team
Pecunia non olet

About shepwayvox (1847 Articles)
Our sole motive is to inform the residents of Shepway - and beyond -as to that which is done in their name. email: shepwayvox@riseup.net

4 Comments on Ross House: Is this another dodgy £1m contract?

  1. JB // June 14, 2023 at 19:33 // Reply

    Oily Andy slips through the toxic net yet again! When will the new administration start recognising the common denominator in all these scandals?

  2. Roy // June 14, 2023 at 20:21 // Reply

    It will be interesting to see if Vinci Construction Limited file dormant company accounts for 2022 as they have for the last 20 years. May be someone has the company name wrong.

  3. Kevin // June 14, 2023 at 20:25 // Reply

    And don’t forget Priest and Khroud when you’re having a clear out

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