The council is committed to raising the standard and quality of residents’ homes throughout the borough; and the cleanliness in communal areas such as stairs, landings and internal bin stores in blocks has been a concern for some time.

There are over 260 blocks in the borough that have communal entrances, stairs and landings. Some of those have internal bin stores as well. In the two tenant satisfaction surveys carried out in 2016 and 2018 less than 50% of tenants were satisfied with the cleanliness of their blocks.

Although the tenancy agreement is clear that tenants are responsible for keeping these areas clean, only a small minority actual did so. Eager to ensure that the levels of cleanliness improved we decided, therefore, that we would have to introduce a cleaning service through a cleaning company, and that the cost of this would be paid for by tenants and leaseholders through a service charge.

This approach was agreed by tenants groups and our tenant-led Housing Management Advisory Board and Spotlight Cleaning Services won the cleaning contract.

The service started in late December 2019, and over 1,300 tenants and 200 leaseholders are now having their blocks cleaned either monthly or fortnightly.

Change of contractor for 2024

After four years, the contract we had with Spotlight Cleaning Services has come to an end.  

For the past few months, the council's Landlord Services team has been busy inviting tenders for a new two-year contract (with an option to extend for two additional one-year periods).

We are pleased to say that, from 1 March 2024, the cleaning service will be taken over by aAFD Services, a company based in Coalville, Leicestershire.

We had over nine companies submitting a tender for the work, and all went through a very thorough evaluation process. The evaluations were carried out by officers and a tenant member of our Housing Management Advisory Board.

The new contractor already provides similar services to several nearby local authorities, and we are looking forward to working with the company in order that residents will receive an excellent service over the initial two-year period of the contract.

The contract is based on a specification – a list of things that the contractor must do when cleaning the blocks. The new specification is different from the old one and we have listened to residents’ concerns over some aspects of the service over the past four years. Some of the main changes are:

  • All communal windows, inside and out, will now be cleaned every three months;
  • Hot water will be used rather than cold;
  • All floors will be left dry when the cleaners leave the block.

Residents can view the complete specification below:

Communal cleaning specification

Discussions with the new contractor are taking place in respect of drawing up a schedule of planned cleans similar to what has been in place over the past four years. Once we know which blocks are going to be cleaned on which days/during which weeks, we will let everyone know.

Once this has been agreed with the contractor, we will also be letting residents know the process by which they can make comments, compliments and complaints about the service.

With all new contracts, there will be a period of adjustment and establishing the new service. We would ask everyone to be patient while this transition takes place, be polite and courteous to the new contractors and direct any questions to the tenancy and estate management team rather than the contractors themselves. It is also important to make sure that there are no obstructions in halls, stairways and landings that might stop the contractors from cleaning the block.

Charges

The cost of the cleaning is recovered through a service charge, which is added on to tenants’ weekly rent. From 1 April 2024 this will be either £2.26 per week (charged over 48 weeks) for those receiving a fortnightly clean or £1.04p per week for those opting for a monthly clean. These new charges reflect the cost of the new contract for the year beginning 1 April 2024 and are a small reduction on current charges.

If you get housing benefit or universal credit you must inform the council or the DWP of this  charge since it will be eligible for both housing benefit and universal credit. 

Schedule

Please see below a list of all blocks that are cleaned, their normal cleaning day and when in the month they are expected to be cleaned.

Communal cleaning schedule

Last updated: Fri 15th March, 2024 @ 16:32