THE future of a local authority housing repairs workforce has been safeguarded after months of unrest over contract talks jeopardised their jobs.

Wear Valley District Council has awarded the contract to carry out maintenance of its housing stock to its own in-house repairs team.

The decision to keep the service in-house comes after months of negotiations between council chiefs, labourers and union officials over new employment terms.

The contract was put out to tender in the open market under the Government's rules on Best Value and the council's team won the tendering exercise against competition from other service providers.

Council chiefs say the winning of the contract is evidence of significant improvement in a council service that was judged to be poor in a 2002 review by the Audit Commission. It has since been commended by the Audit Commission and awarded one star at a subsequent re-inspection.

Head of property services Alan Northcote is confident the service will continue to improve under the new contract terms, which were put into action this month.

Multi-skilling of workers was formalised so work can often be done by a single repair man instead of tenants having to wait for a succession of tradesman to complete a job. And extended working hours means appointments are available until 6pm most nights.

Mr Northcote said: "We are pleased that the decision has been taken to keep the service in-house, as it reflects the improvements made over the last 18 months."