A number of Cheshire West and Chester Councillors have accused the Council of being “asleep at the wheel” and slammed “farcical governance” over litany of errors on the Housing Management contract.
At a meeting of Cheshire West and Chester Council’s Cabinet in July 2025, it was agreed to bring the delivery of housing management and support services in-house, following the end of the current contract in July 2027. However, 23 days later, a “Notice of a Short Notice Key Decision” was published that proposed to end this existing contract in April 2026 instead. Because of this, the only scrutiny this additional change saw (which is scheduled to take place in 8 months’ time) was a short meeting of the Cabinet in August, rather than a fuller review as should be expected.
This follows a long history of a lack of transparency and scrutiny around the current contract, including at the July 2024 Full Council meeting, when the Council authorised a payment of £4.357 million to ForHousing, with the full reasons for this decision remaining shrouded in mystery.
Cllr Martin Loftus (Hartford and Greenbank, Con), Shadow Cabinet Member for Homes, Planning and Safer Communities, spoke out at the late notice Cabinet meeting, saying:
“This report is little more than a smokescreen. A smokescreen no doubt intended to disguise the failings of this administration by circumventing proper scrutiny of the events which have led us to the position where the Council is unable to rely upon its contracts and where its tenants will suffer the consequences.
“…Paragraph 4.1 of the report advises that since the Contract became effective in 2017 the services provided have been expanded. Unbelievably, these additional services have not all been properly recorded via contract amendments, side letters etc. as they should have been. This failure of process enables ForHousing to exit those services with little or no notice. Failure to ensure that the additional services are properly defined, contractually agreed and properly recorded might be considered negligent, even incompetent, by our tenants that rely upon these services.
“This situation could and should have been avoided. Our tenants have been badly let down by those that have been asleep at the wheel and will now suffer the consequences. Those responsible should consider their positions.”
Summarising afterwards, Conservative Group Leader Cllr Adrian Waddelove (Farndon, Con) added:
“This latest update is just the tip of the iceberg around the farcical governance taken place around this contract. Ever since we started questioning the payment from July 2024 of the £4.357 million payment to ForHousing that was not obliged by the contract, we have been stonewalled in our questions and when pressed for more information, we were told we would get no response to an FOI from a Senior Officer.
“I find it scarcely believable that the Council did not know about the need to bring the contract to a premature end. 23 days is a long time in politics, but within the context of a 10 year contract, is surely not enough for material changes to have come about.
“There have been multiple failures that have allowed the situation to get to this point. The Council must have known about these problems and has failed to be transparent with colleagues and with residents.
“There are very serious lessons to be learned and very serious failures of oversight. Cllr Warner should resign.”
Background information
Link to the July 2024 Full Council papers here: https://cmttpublic.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=448&MId=7264
A recording of a meeting of the CWaC Cabinet on 12 February 2025, where further questions were raised by Cllr Loftus, is available here: https://cheshirewestandchester.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/947168 (forward to 0:45:10 onwards) and the response given by members of the Cabinet (from 0:56:00).
Link to previous press release around contract – www.cheshirewestconservatives.org.uk/news/local-conservatives-ask-wheres-transparency-over-multi-million-pound-payment-housing-provider
The reasons why the item and the decisions it contains are urgent and the requirement to provide 28 days’ notice of the intended decision cannot be met are set out below:
1. The current Housing Management Contract has come under significant financial pressure and there is an imminent risk of service failure should an early exit from the contract not be agreed. This would impact 5,461 tenant households in Council accommodation, placing them at substantial risk due to an inability by the Council to keep their properties well maintained and managed.
2. This situation has been further exacerbated by the introduction of measures by the current provider to reduce their financial exposure resulting in service reductions which will not meet regulatory standards, resulting in the need to exit these arrangements as soon as possible. This action by the current provider could not have been foreseen.
3. To avoid service failure the Council needs to mobilise new services in respect of the Housing Management Contract, Homelessness Support Contract, Home Improvement Agency, and Housing Investment Account within 8 months. There is serious concern that it would not be possible for the relevant necessary procurement activity and subsequent mobilisation to take place by 1/4/26 if a decision on this item was delayed to allow 28 days’ notice of the intention to take it.
4. Service failure would result in the withdrawal of accommodation and support services to homeless households, and a significant delay to vulnerable members of the public who require disabled adaptations to their homes. This could put at risk the Council’s effective provision of safeguarding services to vulnerable people.
5. Service failure would place the Council at risk of intervention by the Regulator of Social Housing for its inability to meet its legal obligations in respect of its tenants.
