Castle Vale Community Housing Association

G. Purchase were appointed in 2006 to provide a planned and responsive maintenance service to Castle Vale Community Housing Association, one of Birmingham’s leading tenant-led housing organisations.

Built in the mid 1960’s, Castle Vale is one of the largest post-war housing estates in the Midlands. Its open, flat site on the edge of North East Birmingham was once the Castle Bromwich Airfield, home to the Spitfire. The estate became home to families from run-down areas of inner-city Birmingham, whose homes had been declared unfit to live in as part of the 1960’s clearance programs. Originally Castle Vale comprised of a mixture of houses, maisonette blocks and 34 high-rise towers.

In 1993 a Housing Action Trust (HAT) was established for Castle Vale, supported by a group of strong committed tenants and residents. This enabled the tenanted homes to be transferred out of local authority control, and a massive regeneration programme to commence.

 Castle Vale Community Housing Association, now manages 2,500 homes on the estate with much of the traditional housing stock having been retained, however many of the high rise blocks were demolished, dramatically changing the estate. The bulk of the stock has been modernised and now meets the Decent Homes standard. The repairs and maintenance service therefore provide a critical role by ensuring this investment is continually maintained and value maximised from the investment.  

In 2007 G. Purchase Construction Ltd were appointed as the Responsive Maintenance and Voids service provider for a period of 4 years, with a possible extension of a further 2 years. The Company also won the external Painting and Cyclical Maintenance contract for 5 years, with a possible 2 year extension.

The appointment of G. Purchase Construction Ltd marked a first for CVCHA in a number of ways. It was the first time that the organisation had appointed a single service provider for repairs and maintenance, it was the first time that CVCHA had integrated their Housing Management System with a contractor’s, and it was the first time that a service had been delivered through ‘open book’ principles.

Both G. Purchase Construction Ltd and CVCHA have embraced the true spirit of partnering and created an integrated supply chain solution which includes delivery partners co-located at the Company’s offices, the co-location of the Company’s Repairs Administration Team in CVCHA’s offices, and the creation of a dedicated Buildbase stores outlet within our Depot located on Castle Vale.

The service is delivered through a direct Team of Operatives and staff dedicated to the delivery of the service solely for CVCHA.

The success of our delivery model has enabled us to broaden the scope of work we have carried out on CVCHA’s behalf to include level access shower conversions and other Aids & Adaptations, kitchen and bathroom refurbishments, minor estate environmental improvements such as rebuilding garages, and the re-commissioning, repair and servicing of Solar Thermal heating systems installed as part of the estate’s new build programme several years ago.

The Company also recently won a tender to deliver the refurbishment of Intermediate Rent Void properties. These are empty privately owned properties that have been acquired by CVCHA to bring them back into use and provide much needed additional accommodation on the estate.

The Company has built upon the strong foundation of its partnership with CVCHA to embrace the wider community. We have recruited and trained people through Merlin recruitment; a community based Social Enterprise Company located in the heart of the Castle Vale estate. We also help to provide financial support for Castle Vale’s Monday Club, run to provide activities and a social meeting place for the estates older population.

The Company has also supported Castle Vale School’s 4 Real initiative, providing disadvantaged youngsters, and those on the verge of exclusion from school, with the opportunity to gain genuine work experience and to assist them on re-focussing their energies on academic study.

Peter Richmond, Chief Executive of CVCHA commented: “G. Purchase provide a good, reliable service and tenants satisfaction levels are high. They understand our customers and our community and have supported for our wider regeneration role within Castle Vale by initiatives such as work placements.”

In fact, customer satisfaction levels are currently exceeding target at 98% based on our customer satisfaction data collected from tenants on completion of the works.

In addition to day to day repairs, G Purchase were also appointed by Castle Vale to carry out the total refurbishment of several properties to be rented in the private sector. These “buy backs” have seen comprehensive packages of work undertaken, including installing new kitchens and bathrooms, central heating, window refurbishment,  rewires, decoration and external works including fencing and groundworks.