Local workers construct a new career with Connaught

Seventeen construction workers from across south Wales have defied the downturn of trade in the housing market to secure positions working on a multi-million pound project in the area.

The tradesmen have been recruited by Connaught Partnerships to help meet the company’s target of trebling activity on its RCT Homes contract this year.

Last year Connaught was awarded contracts worth £6million a year for the next five years to modernise more than 4300 homes in Rhondda Cynon Taff. The work includes installing new kitchens and bathrooms, complete electrical rewiring, and carpentry upgrades.

Connaught is set to deliver the contract utilising a local labour force where possible and the new recruits increase the company’s RCT Homes labour force to 52.

In developing its labour force to service the contract Connaught held a recruitment day in Rhondda Cynon Taf last year and has also linked with employment specialist JobMatch, which is working to increase employment across the heads of the valleys area.

Ian Tovey, age 43 from Cardiff, worked as a site manager for a housing association before making the move to a large private developer several years ago. When the housing market started to decline last year he found himself redundant and struggling to find a new job. 

Ian said: “After spending six months searching for a new position in the local area without much success, it was starting to look like I would be forced to relocate to Kent or London if I wanted to continue my career in the housing industry.”

He continued: “I feel very fortunate to have found work near my home and especially given the loss of jobs throughout the construction industry at present. It will be a change going back to the area of social housing, but one that I am looking forward to.”

John Tucker, Connaught’s partnering operations manager on the RCT Homes contract, said: “We have worked to ensure that we have the right team in place to deliver the RCT Homes contract to the highest standards. Following the recruitment of the latest employees we are now in a position to increase activity to bring benefits to more local tenants throughout Rhondda Cynon Taf each week. We are committed to improving the communities in which we work, whether it is upgrading existing facilities or offering employment to people from the area.”

RCT Homes Chief Executive Andrew Lycett added: “As well as raising the standard of their homes, our tenants and their local communities expect the refurbishment of their homes to create a sustainable legacy of increased employment and higher skill levels.  Connaught have shown how a company can operate a profitable contract and still deliver tangible social and economic benefits to the community.”

Connaught is the UK’s leading provider of asset management services to local authorities and registered social landlords, providing a full range of housing maintenance and estate management services. It is committed to working with social housing landlords and local authorities to achieve the Welsh Assembly Government’s Housing Quality Standards 2012 target.