Facilities and Property Service Update Report
Renfrewshire Council · 12 June 2025
Back to Finance, Resources and Customer Services Policy Board — 12 June 2025 and its agenda
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To: Finance, Resources and Customer Services Policy Board On: 12 June 2025 Report by: Director of Environment, Housing & Infrastructure Heading: Facilities and Property Services - Service Update Report 1 Summary 1.1 Environment, Housing & Infrastructure brings together a range of Council services and activities, with both strategic and operational responsibilities. This report provides an operational performance update on Facilities Management (Hard and Soft Services), Building Services and Property Services delivered by Environment, Housing & Infrastructure since the last Policy Board in April 2025. 2 Recommendations It is recommended that members of the Finance, Resources and Customer Services Policy Board: 2.1 Note the content of this report. 3 Operational Update Hard Facilities Management (Hard FM) 3.1 Public Buildings – Capital Projects 3.1.1 As detailed and discussed at a previous Board, a review of the Core Facts property condition surveys (5 yearly checks across the Learning Estate), led to a prioritised list of work to upgrade some schools. Additionally, Net Zero surveys have been approved to the following properties: • Glenfield Satellite (Pre five nursery) • Williamsburgh Primary School and Nursery 3.1.2 Works have been approved to upgrade the Multi-Use Games Arenas (MUGAs) at the following schools:
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• Our Lady of Peace Primary School • Arkleston Primary School 3.1.3 Due to the complexities of lifting and relaying a pitch/MUGA at schools (pitch out of commission), consultation with the school will be important to ensure safe working practices and this may delay the installation until later in 2025 or 2026. 3.1.4 As part of the route to Net Zero, feasibility investigation has been agreed to potential upgrade the lighting to LED at St Charles Primary. This will also positively impact the condition rating of the school if approved. 3.1.5 Renfrewshire Schools Partnership (RSP) have provided reports to the Council following Core Facts Condition surveys. PPP Facilities Manager has reviewed and is now using this reporting format to form future lifecycle works and Handback Requirements. 3.2 Public Buildings - Lifecycle Replacement works 3.2.1 Reviewing the data for the last financial year, over 60 various lifecycle works were approved to the value of over £500k. Works included minor upgrades within school estate and community buildings – carpets, painting and external works. 3.2.2 Officers continue to develop the boiler upgrade program for the estate – further updates will be provided to this Board in due course. 3.2.3 The following commissions have been planned/progressed/completed since the previous Board: The table below (indicative list) highlights some work that has recently been approved or is in progress and others yet to be fully explored and agreed but currently being scoped: 2024/25 Update Site Type of Work Work Required Status Lochwinnoch Nursery Fence gates Alter gate In Progress Lochfield ELCC Fence gates New fence In Progress Houston PS Roof works Roof repairs Planned Williamsburgh PS Roof works Reline Gutter Planned Rashielea PS Roof works Re-felt roof Planned St James PS CCTV Renew CCTV workstation Complete Lochwinnoch Library Roof works Slate and lead flashing works Complete Tweedie Hall Heating Renew pipework roof Complete Renfrewshire House Roof Works Roof edge protection & ladders In Progress Heriot PS Painting/Flooring/Joinery Paint room and replace flooring/ tiles. In Progress
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2025/26 (New Works) Site Type of Work Work Required Gryffe High A/C Replacement Replacement for A/C in Labs 3/4 Anchor Centre Pump replacement Replace faulty and obsolete cold water booster pumps Park Mains High School Pump replacement Replace faulty and obsolete shunt pumps Renfrewshire House Heating Replace 2 boilers Renfrew Town Hall Heating Replace 2 boilers Glen Park Visitor Centre Car Park Drain / sewage issues - Survey Foxbar rivers CC and Drop in Roof works Soffits and Facias Bishopton Library Roof works Investigations on-going Renfrew Library Car Park New tarmac East Fulton PS HW boiler replacement 1 water heater is end of life, other one will be end of life soon. Barsail PS Tarmac MUGA and carpark tarmac repairs Glendee ELCC Tarmac Tarmac repairs to carpark Howwood Community Centre Paint Paint external Howwood Community Centre Roof works Gutters Back Sneddon Potholes Several potholes PPP Lifecycle works • The Council have now reviewed the 2025 Lifecycle Maintenance programme provided by RSP and have commented on various aspects under the PPP contractual Review Procedure. FM Manager has now met with RSP & Amey to discuss in further detail. • Works completed over Easter break o Various flooring replacements & decoration works o Gleniffer HS - 4 x external doors replaced o St Andrews Academy - 2 x outbuilding door replacements o Todholm PS - 3 x water heaters replaced o West Johnstone Shared Campus - Full external render decoration • Works funded by RSP & Amey o Fordbank PS – forest gathering £3k o St Andrews Academy – Memorial garden upgrade £7.5k 3.3 Public Buildings – Reactive/General Improvement works: 3.3.1 The following on-going works continue to be undertaken to improve public buildings across the portfolio: • Storm Eowyn – In general, rectification works nearing completion. Significant works actioned at Renfrew HS and Trinity HS. Tender for
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roof replacement at St Catherines PS recently approved by the Head of Finance and Procurement and Interim Procurement Manager. Engagement with the insurance team and loss adjuster continues, to ensure any costs are recovered (where appropriate). • Renfrewshire House – works will be in the roof voids of each floor to check and undertake fire separation/stopping works. Phase 1 of this project now complete – lessons learned with further works to follow. Commission now raised to Property Services for the roll-out across all areas. Works require a full tender process due to the value of the contract. In order to minimize disruption and to help progress matters, fire stopping work will be actioned as part of any alteration or refurbishment works. Currently lower ground and 1st due for alteration, with other floors to follow. • Renfrewshire House – CCTV upgrade feasibility. This proved cost prohibitive – further dialogue required by all stakeholders and potential business case required. • Lochfield Primary School – Removal of wall and erection of new fence (or wall). Resident engagement on going. • Underwood Road Depot – Installation of new CCTV system within Building Services stores/offices. Complete. • Howwood Primary School – historic water ingress. (Ongoing – roof covering fixed but still water ingress). • Toilet upgrades are planned for St Charles, Rashielea and Barsail Primary Schools over the summer months. Engagement with school and Children’s Services on going. • New base units and vinyl flooring programmed for the summer within Our Lady of the Peace Primary School. 3.3.2 The Hard FM team are currently working on the following commissions: • Condition Surveys for OneRen swimming pools - this has now concluded. Data is being assessed and will provide some back up data for the ongoing strategic review of OneRen. • Condition surveys for various community buildings (19 buildings in total) Surveys ongoing and progress meetings ongoing. • HQ Building Management System upgrade - options appraisal ongoing. • HQ lining of car park, general clean up and drainage works - (ongoing) • HQ lighting and controls upgrade feasibility (sample bespoke fitting now installed and route to market being determined) - options appraisal ongoing. • Wallneuk Records Store – fire compartmentation and safety works • Heriot Primary School – roofing and heating works. 3.3.3 As part of the Council budget, officers are drafting plans for additional funding that has been provided: • £700k for school pitch improvements. • £800k for Community Facilities to assist in potential CAT transfers • £1m recurring revenue, including lifecycle works across the Learning Estate
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3.3.4 Updates will continue to be brought to this Board periodically to update on plans and spend. 3.4 Public Buildings compliance – Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) 3.4.1 For this financial year, there was approximately 2000 planned tasks with overall performance of this period at 87%. Officers continue to engage with external service providers to ensure target dates are met and performance is improved. Performance can be challenging due to contractor management, however, Board should note that work is being undertaken to ensure that all compliance works are done as per legislative requirements. 3.4.2 Overall performance for this period continues at 100% within the PPP Schools estate. 3.5 Public Buildings - Repairs data 3.5.1 The repairs profile remains as expected, as detailed below for 2024/25: 2024/25 Repairs Education Core Prestige OneRen Total 7149 2452 834 336 10771 3.5.2 Officers continue to engage with our colleagues within Corporate Procurement Unit (CPU) for the new fire dampers tender. 3.5.3 Officers successfully managed to plan and organize 3 drop-in sessions for the PAT of electrical equipment across all services. In total, over 2000 items were inspected/tested, exceeding all expectations. As such this, proved to be a thoroughly worthwhile and important exercise. 3.6 Fire Safety 3.6.1 All fire risk assessments in the PPP Schools Estate have now concluded with recommended actions being reported as being completed. The PPP - Facilities Manager reviewed a sample of actions and all have now been completed. 3.7 Responsive Repairs 3.7.1 The numbers shown below are only the repairs carried out on behalf of Housing Services. There are further categories that must be added to this number to get the full picture of the actual number of repairs attended by Building Services from April 2024 to the end of March 2025.
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Housing Services other categories not included in the figure above – 2,310 Public Buildings repairs – 14,192 *Assists (Two Operative Visit) – 3404 Therefore, the total number of repairs that Building Services operatives have been deployed to in 2024/25 is 99,636. *Assist category is where 2 operatives have to attend a single job for a variety of reasons. 3.7.2 The productivity across the responsive repairs teams is monitored and assessed weekly. The graph shows the tracking of the average number of jobs completed per operative per day from April 2024 to March 2025. The overall yearly monthly average is 5.2. as compared to the industry average of 4.5 jobs, per operative, per day.
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3.8 Voids 3.8.1 Building Services at year end averaged 14.8 days to complete all works required within a void property minus exceptions, this is an improvement of 1.6 days from April 2024. However, figures show that the average hours estimated in each void property continued to rise significantly as the year progressed. 3.8.2 From April 2024, until 31st March 2025, Building Services received 742 full void packs in total, of which 130 included Gas Central Heating installs. The number of voids being received per week has continually dropped throughout the year, averages were as follows • Q1 - 16 • Q2 - 15 • Q3 - 14 • Q4 - 11 Discussions with colleagues in Housing Services remain on-going and is often due to issues the services control e.g. management voids and asbestos surveys. 3.8.3 Estimated work volume per void property continues to increase substantially across 2024/25. • Q1 (119 hours per property) • Q2 (130 hours per property) • Q3 (135 hours per property) • Q4 (156 hours per property) The increase in volume of work has made it challenging to return completed voids within the KPI’s, however, efforts continue to be made to achieve these. 3.8.4 Operatives continue to attend and change locks to terminations, absconds and evictions which has dropped slightly to an average of 20 per week throughout Q4, the first 3 quarters of the year averaged at 22 properties per week. The total number attended from April 2024 to end of March 2025 is 1077. 3.8.5 Building Services have taken on the responsibility of the 360-viewing technology, carrying out 705 tours over 2024/25, consisting of both pre and post views of properties, these recordings/tours are stored and available to Renfrewshire Council as required, although the potential full usage of the technology has still to be rolled out further. 3.9 Electrical Testing programme 3.9.1 There is currently a programme for carrying out Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) testing across both Housing properties and Public Buildings. From April 2024 to the end of March 2025 the following electrical work has been completed:
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• 866 tenanted houses have had a completed EICR test. • 808 void houses have a completed EICR test. • 65 completed EICR tests have been carried out in Public Buildings. • 261 EICR tests have been completed in communal and close areas. • 240 domestic visual inspections (HPU premises). • 4800 minor works certificates issued. • 103 Completed emergency lighting testing public buildings. • 11 Completed emergency lighting communal areas and high flats. • 900 electrical installation certificates issued for remedial works. • 750 fire alarm certificates issued. 3.9.2 The homes that have failed to engage with the process to have the EICR test have now moved to the forced entry process. The number of forced entries for 2024/25 is 600. This number includes houses that have been passed back to Housing Services from external contractors as they have failed to get access and then passed on to Building Services to carry out the forced entry. 3.10 Gas servicing 3.10.1 From April 2024 to the end of March 2025 the domestic gas servicing and repairs team carried out 12,658 gas services. This is broadly in line with the gas services carried in the previous 2 years. 2022/2023 - 12,644 2023/2024 - 12,757 2024/2025 - 12,658 Unfortunately, 3,154 of the gas services carried out in 2024/25 went to the forced entry stage as the tenant failed to make an appointment in the 8 weeks prior to the service being due despite 3 letters being sent to each tenant prior to the forced entry letter being issued. 3.11 Apprentices/Training 3.11.1 The recruitment of 7 new trade apprentices has now been completed. There will be 5 youth apprentices and 2 adult apprentices starting their training in August of this year. All candidates live within the Renfrewshire area. 7 final year apprentices completed their apprenticeships in June 2025 and are now working within Renfrewshire Council. 4 Soft Facilities Management (Soft FM) 4.1 School Meals 4.1.1 The Pilot for the rollout of the preorder app commenced on 20 January 2025 in Park Mains High School. So far, over 270 pupils have registered for the use of the app and Children’s Services has supported the implementation by promoting the information to parents and pupils. The pilot will be rolled out to Castlehead High School as soon as possible with it hoped to be rolled out before the end of term.
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4.1.2 The app was implemented in the PPP school estate to senior pupils at St Benedicts High School on their return from the Easter break 4.2 Special and Complex Diets 4.2.1 The new process for complex and medical diets was shared with relevant stakeholders. Feedback and suggestions have been received and will be reviewed. The new process is in place and has been shared with all parents, guardians, and other stakeholders thereby establishing a robust process for the ongoing management of special diet requests. 4.3 Scottish Child Payment 4.3.1 Work continues to increase the number of pupils attending universal free school meals (P1-P5), free school meals and paid meals across both primary and secondary schools. 4.3.2 Process implemented on 4 April 2025 where Parents/Carers of pupils in P6/7 that are eligible for Scottish Child Payment can apply for Free School Meals. Low number of applications received to date, however, those that applied were eligible for a free school meal from 22 April 2025. The overall average uptake figures for School meals (Periods 1-13) • 60.2% overall for FSM, UFSM & Paid • 69.8% UFSM (P 1-5) • 35.4% FSM (P 6-7) The figure is not adjusted due to the timing delay of pupil absence figures being received. Discussions are being undertaken as to how this can be improved which will ensure “real time” attendance figures can be utilised to reflect accurate uptake figures. 4.3.3 The Scottish Government is due to provide Local Authorities with data on all eligible pupils in P6/7, as soon as this is received, any eligible pupil not in receipt of a free school meal will be contacted. Soft FM remains confident it can facilitate the additional numbers due to the work undertaken previously, the re-instatement of additional cooking establishments and the planned capital work forecast for 2025. 5 Property Services 5.1 Current Commissions 5.1.1 Officers within Property Services continue to work across the Renfrewshire Council’s property portfolio and given the workload, major projects are reported to the respective Board e.g. Education and Children’s Services Board.
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5.2 School Kitchen Expansion 5.2.1 A contract was awarded at this Board in April 2025 and works on all three school sites will be carried out concurrently between June and completed by October 2025. 5.3 Infrastructure Programme 5.3.1 The Latest developments within the Cultural Infrastructure Programme are listed below: • Ferguslie Sports Centre: Defect rectification is ongoing and Making Good Defects (MGD) now programmed for August 2025. • St James Playing Fields: Defect rectification is ongoing and MGD now programmed for December 2025. There is still an ongoing issue with Scottish Water (wastewater) connection, but this is not impacting on the facility being used. • ON-X Running Track: Defect rectification ongoing and MGD programmed for September 2025. • ON-X Hockey Pitch: Defect rectification ongoing and MGD programmed for October 2025. • Sheltered Housing Fire Alarm Upgrades o A contract has been awarded and a pre-start meeting has been convened with site operations commencing in June 2025 with a programmed site period of approximately one year. • Renfrewshire House Archive Store Waterproofing/Ramp Upgrade o A contract has been awarded and a pre-start meeting convened with site operations having commenced in early June 2025 with a programmed completion of October. • Heriot PS Boiler House Heating Pipe Replacement o Following a protracted tender evaluation and review process, and discussion with Hard FM and Procurement colleagues, a decision was taken not to proceed with an award as only one tender was returned and was not considered to be the most economically advantageous. Tender documents will now be revised and updated to capture some of the issues identified as part of the initial tender process. Due to the intrusive nature of the works this project is now programmed for site commencement in summer 2026. 5.4 Life Cycle Maintenance: Schools Retrofit Programme 5.4.1 Feasibility studies are being commissioned with an external consultant to investigate potential energy upgrade measures to an initial five school/ELCC properties with the HOFAP/Interim Procurement Manager involved in agreeing an appropriate procurement route. 5.5 Life Cycle Maintenance: General Programme 5.5.1 Short term component renewal programme is presently under review by Technical Unit and colleagues from Hard FM with the aim being to identify programmes of work for next 1-3 years. Projects being considered are also
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being cross referenced with possible future Children’s Services estate projects to minimize potential abortive works and cost. Implications of the Report 1. Financial – Any financial elements referenced in this report will be progressed through the Council’s financial & budget planning process. 2. HR & Organisational Development – Apprentice recruitment detailed in the report will be undertaken as per standard Renfrewshire Council recruitment processes. 3. Community/Council Planning – the report details a range of activities which reflect local community and council planning themes. 4. Legal – As detailed within the report. 5. Property/Assets – As detailed within the report in relation to work on the Council property portfolio. 6. Information Technology - None 7. Equality & Human Rights – The recommendations contained within this report have been assessed in relation to their impact on equalities and human rights. No negative impacts on equality groups or potential for infringement of individuals’ human rights have been identified arising from the recommendations contained in the report. If required following implementation, the actual impact of the recommendations and the mitigating actions will be reviewed and monitored, and the results of the assessment will be published on the Council’s website. 8. Health & Safety – Advice and guidance is being given to protect the health and safety of employees and service users when carrying out priority services for the Council in line with government and health guidance. 9. Procurement – As noted within the report. 10. Risk – None 11. Privacy Impact – The Scottish Government are looking to introduce legislation to allow the data sharing with local authorities in relation to parents/carers who receive the Scottish Child Payment. 12. COSLA Policy Position – None 13. Children’s Rights – Facilities and Property Services are essential in trying to assist and deliver in support of Children’s Rights. In particular, the report
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demonstrates compliance by ensuring buildings are suitable provides good educational establishments (Article 28 - Access to Education) and by delivering schools meals and nutritious food (Article 27 – Food, Clothing, and a safe home). 14. Climate Change – Parts of the work undertaken in this report will reduce carbon emissions and assist in trying the reach Net Zero targets by improving efficiency of current buildings and new buildings across the portfolio. List of Background Papers None Author: Gordon McNeil, Director of Environment, Housing & Infrastructure Email: gordon.mcneil@renfrewshire.gov.uk