Service works to take an E.ON
12-week job won’t finish for a year
A 12-week scheme to make Toryglen houses more energy efficient will now take more than one year to complete, Thistle Housing Association has said.
The social landlord employed E. ON Energy Services to replace roofs, install insulation and replace the roughcast on properties in an £8.5 million initiative to make people’s homes cheaper to heat.
But the scheme, which started in June 2016, has been plagued by problems, with contractors downing tools on the site on several occasions and several deadlines for completion being missed.
Residents of Kerrycroy Avenue recently compared their housing scheme to “Beirut on a bad day”.
Ian Paterson, is one of several flat owners who was asked by Thistle Housing Association to pay in excess of £2000 for his share of the works.
He first contacted the Reformer in December and listed a series of failures including human sewage spilling into people’s bathrooms, windows covered with tarpaulin for months and gardens littered with construction waste.
He said: “Since I last contacted the Reformer nothing has changed. In fact, if there has been change, it has got worse.
“The down pipes have not been fitted properly and the front of the buildings are covered in damp patches. Sewage is also running out the back.
“I spoke to an E.ON contractor. He said as of Monday the roughcast is all being ripped off in the street where I stay. All the pipes are bring ripped off and the scaffolding is going up again.
“But who is paying for this? Not only are we living in a bomb site but it is being paid for from the tax on your income and the tax on my pension and no one is taking responsibility.”
But a spokeswoman for Thistle Housing Association said it had agreed a fixed price contract with E. ON, stating they would be responsible for covering the costs of delays, and all remedial work including corrective work to gardens and grassed areas that have been damaged.
Patricia Jamieson, chairwoman of Thistle Housing Association, added:
“The most recent schedule indicates that work will continue until July 2017, however, we will ensure works will continue until the residents are satisfied that they have a high quality finished product.
“This is not something we are willing to compromise on.
“We would like to assure our residents we are doing all that we can and we will continue to keep them updated throughout every step of the process to deliver energy efficient homes that will benefit residents for generations to come.”
A spokesman for E. ON said: “Our work to insulate 608 homes at Toryglen is a substantial and complex project.
“We have previously apologised to residents for times when we have hit problems which caused delays or when remedial work was required where the standard of the initial work was not as high as we, Thistle Housing Association and residents expected.
“We met with Thistle Housing Association recently and agreed a new programme of work which will see all outstanding jobs completed by July 2017.”
Glasgow City Council and the Scottish Government provided funding for the Toryglen scheme in the form of individual grants for owner occupiers to assist them with meeting their individual cost of the major repair works.