Dulux Trade
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Dulux Trade’s old school revival
Housing Associations face a constant juggling act. On one hand is the need to provide quality housing for tenants and a desire to maintain standards. On the other, as not for profit organisations, cost is a constant concern.
This is particularly so in the South East of England where house prices are the highest in the country, and as a result, so is the demand for affordable, quality housing. West Kent Housing Association (West Kent) manages over 5,800 properties in the region, so keeping maintenance cycles to a minimum, while ensuring tenant satisfaction remains high, is crucial.
Dulux Trade Contract Partnership is an accreditation scheme that brings together quality approved contractors and industry leading Dulux Trade products, and has been a success for a myriad of projects of all sizes across the UK. West Kent took advantage of this scheme by embarking on a three-way venture with Imperial Building and Developing Contractors and Dulux Trade, to help extend the maintenance cycles of its properties - a partnership that is already generating staggering savings of £60,000 a year for the housing association.
Every Dulux Trade Contract Partnership member undergoes a stringent independent quality audit before being accepted. The Dulux Trade Contract Partnership scheme ensures that ICI Paints AkzoNobel as the product supplier, the chosen contractors and the end clients themselves work together to achieve joint objectives.
Shan Shivji, property services director for West Kent, and ex-chairman of the South East Consortium, explains: "We are proud to have been the first housing association in the UK to achieve a 3-star rating, so we are constantly striving to deliver excellence and value for money for our tenants."
For years, WKHA had been using a standard gloss system on masonry and woodwork in its developments, which lasted around five years before it needed re-touching or a complete re-coating. “But investment in external painting upgrades really pays off. We decided six years ago, in partnership with ICI Paints AkzoNobel, to switch to better quality paint with the idea that glosswork would last 6 years instead of 5 and masonry work 12 years. The better glosswork finish is actually lasting 7, which equates to an annual saving of £60,000, which will really add up over the standard social housing 'lifecycle' of 30 years."
For West Kent, the partnership has already paid dividends. Shan continues: "Our tenants' surveys show satisfaction levels continue to rise and costs continue to fall as we and our partnering contractor, Imperial, work together to drive them down by finding further efficiencies. Quality inspections by ICI Paints AkzoNobel add value to keep the standards high."
David Morgan, Specifier Account Manager for ICI AkzoNobel concludes: "It's a combination of the quality products, in this case taken from the Dulux Trade Weathershield product range, excellent workmanship and a genuine partnership approach by all parties, that has led to the scheme being such a success at West Kent."
"To see such astounding cost savings is highly encouraging and demonstrates how the Contract Partnership approach can have a genuine and significant impact on the bottom line."
