THE building repairs and maintenance partnership formed by Glasgow City Council and social landlord Wheatley Group has generated an increased return for investment in public services and housing in the latest year.
City Building Glasgow returned £5m to the partners in the venture in respect of the year to March 31 compared with £4.5m for the preceding year.
The organisation increased turnover to £139m, from £138m. It carries out repair and new build work for Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) and other housing associations controlled by Wheatley. City Building(Glasgow) also does the council’s own repairs.
Read more: Glasgow City Council and Wheatley announce £2.7bn partnership
The result will be seen as providing vindication for the decision to form the venture, which started trading on April 1 2017.
Glasgow City Council previously owned the repairs and maintenance operation and ran it on an arm’s length basis.
When the new venture was formed in 2016 the then council leader Frank McAveety said it would help secure 2,000 jobs and more than 2,000 apprenticeships, with the prospect of 30 years work worth £2.7 billion.
There had been fears that the work the formerly loss-making City Building completed would be put out to tender leaving many jobs at risk.
The venture maintains around 500,000 properties including schools offices and apartments. It falls under the wider City Buildings umbrella.
Sister organisation City Building (Contracts) does construction work for the council and commercial clients.
It is owned by the council, to which it returned £4.1m in respect of the latest year. That compared with £4.2m in the preceding year.
Read more: City Building boss highlights pressing need to entice young people into construction
Turnover rose to £87.9m from £86.2m.
Notable projects worked on recently include the newly opened Riverbank Primary School in Dalmarnock and Meadowburn Care Home in Pollok.
City Building has been diversifying into areas such as the building of new homes and the development of small-scale renewable energy facilities.
The wider organisation has more than 2,200 employees. These include 260 at furniture manufacturing arm RSBi (Royal Strathclyde Blindcraft Industries). This says it is committed to providing opportunities for people with disabilities and helping towards the economic regeneration of the local and wider communities.
Graham Paterson, executive director of City Building said: “I am extremely proud of our robust financial performance and the economic opportunities that we are creating for both our staff and the wider city.”
He added: “We look forward to continuing to grow and develop the business, while retaining the unique social ethos which sets us apart from our competitors.”
City Building noted researchers had found that nine per cent of its apprentices are female compared with 2% of construction sector starts in Scotland.
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