THE future of a local authority housing repairs workforce has been safeguarded after months of tension 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 officials, workers and unions, over revised employment terms that were finalised in time to make a bid last year.

The contract was put out to tender under Government Best Value rules and the council team won the tendering exercise.

Council officials say 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.

The council's 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 that work can be done by a single repair man, instead of tenants having to wait for a succession of tradesmen to finish a project.

Extended working hours will mean 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 eighteen months.

"It also gives the current workforce a foundation on which they can build a service that is much more responsive to customer needs, and provides the best value for the council.

"The council, the trades unions and the workforce are now committed to ensuring that we sustain the developing culture of quality and continuous improvement for our customers."

He praised the efforts of the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians (Ucatt), and the Amicus and GMB unions, who worked with council officers throughout the negotiations.