Repair workers hired by Reading Borough Council will continue to help conduct vital repairs to homes in a neighbouring council’s area.

Reading Borough Council has held the contract to conduct emergency and urgent repairs to social homes in Wokingham Borough since 2013.

It means Reading Borough Council has a separate team of repair workers that fix up social housing in the neighbouring borough, which covers Wokingham, the suburbs of Earley, Woodley and Shinfield and surrounding villages.

Wokingham Borough Council is in the process of reviewing its future service requirements for responsive repairs and maintenance services for its social housing.

Although that process has begun, for a contract that will run from 2025-2028, the term of the current contract held by Reading Borough Council expired this March.

Therefore, Reading Councillors have decided to extend its operation of the contract until 2025.

READ MORE: Man slams council for delays to repairs to home riddled with black mould

Reading council’s administration was keen to stress that retaining the contract would have no impact on the town’s tenants, as repair services for each area are run separately.

Ellie Emberson (Labour, Coley) lead councillor for housing, said: “Wokingham and Reading services run separate in terms of repairs, so there’s no impact in terms of our tenants.

“I think it makes sense to Wokingham and for us to proceed.

“It’s prudent for us to create income where we can and we’re clearly capable of carrying out this work and Wokingham think we’re doing a good job.”

It is unclear how much money Reading Borough Council’s possession of the current contract has made for the council.

However, the website bidstats states the value of the future contract from 2025-2028 as £4 million.

A report by Burston,  Reading council’s head of housing property services states that Wokingham council is ‘very satisfied’ with the service, citing performance data.

The decision to extend the existing contract between the two councils until March 31, 2025, was unanimously agreed by members of Reading Borough Council’s housing, neighbourhoods and leisure committee.

Welcoming the move, cllr Adele Barnett-Ward (Labour, Thames) said: “I want to highlight the entrepreneurial spirit of officers in seeking and obtaining this type of work, I think it’s fantastic that we have a partnership working with neighbouring authorities, we’re bringing extra revenue to accounts and we’re also building our skills base and delivering benefits to our residents and our teams without impacting on the services the residents get.

“I just want to thank officers, I love this sort of thing.”

Councillors also agreed that conditions of the current contract be adjusted to ensure Reading Borough Council is not subsiding the work being undertaken for Wokingham Borough Council.

The Reading council committee meeting took place on Thursday, July 6.