273 jobs hang in the balance as Kinetics housing goes; Unite urges
Liverpool council to step in
14 June 2011
Nearly 300 Liverpool workers face an anxious few days as their
employer, Kinetics, is put into administration.
The workforce's union, Unite, is battling to persuade the local
authority, Liverpool City Council, to use their influence to ensure
the company's client, Liverpool Mutual Homes (LMH), takes the
workers into their employment.
Kinetics was providing housing maintenance services to LMH, one
of the biggest social housing groups in the North West, but its
well-known business difficulties had seen it agree to transfer its
workforce to LMH in July.
However, Kinetics problems overwhelmed it before this could be
finalised with the administrator being called in yesterday (Monday)
with the result that the 273 workers could soon be added to the
unemployment figures.
Kinetic's closure is the latest is a series of privatised firms
struggling to provide public services following on from the
collapse of Connaught and Southern Cross.
National officer for Unite, Peter Allenson, said: “Kinetics has
been struggling to provide the service it was contracted to do for
Liverpool Mutual Homes, but we thought we had a way forward.
"Sadly, the company was in too poor a state to carry on so now
nearly 300 workers face a bleak future.
"We urge the council to do everything it can to help ensure
these workers stay in employment by speeding up their transfer to
Liverpool Mutual Homes. It would be a ridiculous waste of public
money to make people redundant at the cost to the state when for
four weeks or so wages they earn could be transferred and the jobs
retained and saved.
"This is yet another case of where a private company thinks it
can pick up a public service and finds it just cannot provide the
service its users need and generate a profit.
"When will councils learn that they cannot outsource services
with the belief that their responsibilities end there? It is still
the council who will bear the risk for ensuring the service
continues and the taxpayers who will pick up the cost when it all
goes wrong?
"For now the priority must be keeping these 300 people in work.
It would be a tragedy if they ended up on the dole and claiming
benefits for the want of some helpful intervention by the
council."
Kinetics provides a range of maintenance services, from plumbing
to redecoration to Liverpool Mutual Homes. They took over from
Interserve, who lost the contract because of service difficulties.
They in turn had the service before Enterprise - and before that
this was a local authority provided service for a long period of
time.
ENDS
For further information, please contact the Unite press office
on 020 3371 2065.
About Kinetics
Kinetics is a private limited company. Their own company profile
states that “The Kinetics Group is a leading provider of asset and
facilities management services to the affordable housing and care
sectors with over 75 years of experience within the group.
Employing 1,600 people and operating from its 22 regional offices
the company looks after a portfolio of over 250,000 buildings
across the UK”. This number would have declined over the past year
following the loss of several large contracts; the LMH contract and
their contract with Hyde.
Inside Housing reports that the Kinetics Group hold around 30
contracts, and Kinetics is in discussions with clients about
transferring the contracts to the new companies.
The private equity firm Sovereign Capital own 80% of Kinetics –
Sovereign Capital had to provide an extra £2million investment in
January 2011. (The company’s cash flow had been hit by suppliers
demanding earlier payments in the wake of Connaught and Rok
collapsing at the end of 2010).
Kinetics Group has a holding company and 10 subsidiaries.
* The repairs and maintenance arm is called DC Group (this
was wound up by order of the court as it owed £7million in tax). DC
Group is the subsidiary which held the LMH contract (it was being
terminated because of performance concerns).
* It has a gas installation subsidiary called Seaflame, which
has also gone into administration. Further subsidiaries are Cameron
Industrial Services and the Lord Group - these are also in
administration.
Inside Housing reports that Kinetics will try to continue
operating through three trading companies. These are existing
businesses that will be renamed. Sureway Gas will become Kinetics
North, TA Horn will become Kinetics South and Walmott will become
Kinetics Midlands.
The administrator, Zolfo Cooper, issued a statement on 13 June
saying that “The administrators were unable to secure positions for
some employees and were left with no alternative but to make 273
employees of the Group redundant with immediate effect”.
The Board of Liverpool Mutual Homes is majority tenant/private
leaseholder representation. There are two places reserved for
Liverpool City Council.
Liverpool Mutual Homes will have a new, in house maintenance
firm from the 1st July 2011 called Housing Maintenance Solutions
(HMS)
