Wrexham Borough County Council – Void Property Refurbishments

Novus Property Solutions undertook full internal and major external void property refurbishments for Wrexham Borough County Council in 2018 and 2019. At the end of the first two years of the contract, Novus handed over 163 completed properties with an order value of £4.5 million.

Our work with Wrexham Council

For many years, Wrexham Borough County Council have been a highly valued and long-term client for Novus.

We have taken on numerous contracts (large and small values) throughout the life of the partnership over the last 4 years including:

• Replacements of kitchen and bathrooms
• Roofing (see our most recent example here)
• Civils (extensive works to gardens)
• Day to day repairs
• One-off jobs / reactive maintenance

Void property refurbishment

Novus is highly experienced in the refurbishment of empty council properties; also known as “voids.” As a well-respected contractor, many councils throughout the UK trust Novus to undertake thousands of void property refurbishments every year.

In this case, Wrexham Council awarded their void works contract to Novus in 2018.

Every void repair value and work scope differs from property-to-property, on this contract, the values ranged from £5,000 to £65,000.

Details of the project

All work on this contract was subcontracted out by Novus, therefore the key to success delivery was largely dependent on well established and proven processes.

These systems have been developed and fine tuned over the last 7 years, with detailed progress tracking and quality contractors selected to represent Novus.

At the end of the first two years of the contract, Novus handed over 163 completed properties on time and in full to the client.

Particularly pleasing was the increase in turnover on the contract without increasing internal colleague head count – rising from £2.8 million in 2018, to £4.5 million 2019.

What challenges were faced?

Every project is faced with unique challenges.

Each contract has a number of different stakeholders to manage and meeting the client’s exacting standards is always the principle focus.

With the nature of void property refurbishments, each job is unique.

Therefore, meeting agreed time frames, delivering a high quality finish (and value for the client), providing the correct documentation, and accurate reporting, can pose a significant challenge.

Through continually developing our processes, maintaining a strong team ethic, and maintaining strong lines of communication with the client, the team overcame these challenges.

How has the client benefitted from the project?

Wrexham have benefitted from newly fully refurbished housing stock that can be quickly placed back into the rental market in order to generate revenue and provide high quality homes for local people.

The community has also benefitted from the project as Novus continually looks for opportunities to add social value to the locality of the works.

To date, Novus has:

• Refurbished community centres free of charge
• Refurbished a local sports hall free of charge
• Completed numerous small additional projects throughout the borough

What comes next?

Novus has recently been awarded a further two years on this scheme. Watch this space for further updates to the programme.