Council homes repairs will be carried out by an in-house service from next April, the authority has announced.

At the moment the maintenance work is carried out by contractor, Enterprise, but its ten year contract runs out in eight months.

Rather than put the contract out to tender again, the council’s cabinet decided to bring most of the work back as an in-house service.

Private firms will still be asked to tender out smaller contracts and local companies are encouraged to apply.

Repair and maintenance of Barking and Dagenham’s housing stock was outsourced to Thames Accord in April 2003. Thames Accord were later taken over by Enterprise.

Cllr Phil Waker, cabinet member for housing, said: “After some very careful consideration we have decided that this model will give tenants and leaseholders the best service going forward.

“We want to create a service where the majority of repair and maintenance work is done in-house, with flexible support provided by external contractors. There will be an opportunity for local firms to apply for some of these contracts and we welcome their interest.

“Our aim is to provide a better service and we are now looking at cost effective ways of achieving this.”