PLANS by Somerset Council to put the management of all council homes under an arms length organisation have cleared their first hurdle.

The authority is looking to Homes in Somerset, which is wholly owned by the council, to take charge of another 6,000 properties on top of 4,000 it already managed for the former Sedgemoor District Council.

Many of the repairs associated with the housing stock would be transferred to MD Group, with existing repairs and maintenance in-house staff moving across.

Executive councillors backed the idea despite a union protest held outside County Hall, Taunton, as the issue was debated.

Tenants and leaseholders have until April 8 to give their views on the proposed changes by visiting an online consultation.

But trade union Unison warned the move could harm tenants, resulting in poorer outcomes for them and higher costs for the council.

Unison representative Roberta Wakefield warned the plans to ‘quietly outsource’ certain services to MD Group could hurt both current staff and council tenants.

She said: “Somerset Council itself has ‘red carded’ MD Group on three occasions due to complaints around the quality of work it carried out.

“MD Group is not mentioned in tenant communication or consultation documents, and had not been mentioned to staff during the recent consultation which asked for staff input.

“The council historically had ended up with unsatisfactory outsourcing, leading to higher costs and a lack of direct control, including waste services, adult social care and Discovery.

“We are confident the current model of housing trades staff working internally, either in house or within an arms length organisation, will provide a much better quality of service to tenants, ensure protection of staff terms and conditions, and ensure a more cohesive housing maintenance service for the people of Somerset.”

Ms Wakefield also warned the council’s transformation programme could lead to lower staff morale and higher turnover of personnel, further disrupting local services.

She said: “I have had my fair share of transformations and I have seen what they do to our services.

“They have left our services in quite dire straits, I think it is fair to say.

“But, even in the face of that, our tradespeople and housing staff work tirelessly for our communities and our tenants.

“We will be losing a huge advantage that this council has.

“My people genuinely care about our tenants and about the service we provide.”

Somerset executive Cllr Federica Smith-Roberts said the final decision would be subject to further consultation.

Cllr Smith-Roberts said: “I hear how passionate you are about our housing service and ultimately about our tenants.

“A combined landlord delivery model can increase performance standards and reduce costs, both of which are of benefit to our tenants.

“We are not proposing a change to an untried or untested model, instead, we are proposing to combine around the higher performing of the two existing models, bringing a consistently higher standard of delivery for all Somerset housing tenants.

“This committee is not being asked to outsource services, that is a decision for Homes in Somerset.”