New-look repairs and maintenance service to be rolled out across Stoke-on-Trent

A repairs and maintenance company, which looks after 17,500 homes and around 600 public buildings in Stoke-on-Trent, will be back under the control of Stoke-on-Trent City Council from April.

In August 2024, the city council announced how Unitas is being brought back in-house to enable it to better meet new government regulations requiring landlords to adhere to new, higher standards ­- and be accountable for all aspects of service delivery.

Unitas was established in 2018 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the council, however, from Tuesday, 1 April 2025, Unitas will be transferred over to Stoke-on-Trent City Council and will operate alongside the hundreds of other valued services that the authority already provides.

From that date, the Unitas name – and logo – will cease to exist, and the service will instead be known as the council’s Repairs and Maintenance Service.

The current Unitas branding will be phased out and replaced with the Stoke-on-Trent City Council crest, in line with all other council services.

New name badges and ID cards are currently being produced for repairs operatives who will present them upon arrival at a tenant’s property. The ID cards will also include a telephone number, which tenants can call to clarify who the person is before letting them into their homes.

Councillor Chris Robinson, cabinet member for housing and planning at Stoke-on-Trent City Council, said: “Over the last six months, a lot of work has been going on behind the scenes to ensure this transition carried out as smoothly and sensitively as possible for all involved.

“The project is progressing well and I’m pleased to be able to announce that, from Tuesday, 1 April, the service will be back under control of the council.

“For now, and in the near future, we don’t expect tenants to notice a huge difference in the way we are delivering our housing repairs and maintenance service. Everything will continue as normal up until at least April.

“But we know from speaking to our tenants that improvement is needed to our repairs and maintenance service and we are looking at what changes we need to make to ensure we can provide a high-quality service. We also want to make sure that repairs are done right the first time and that, through our proactive investment programme, we can fix common housing issues before they become a big problem – such as damp and mould.

“We are committed to improving people’s lives and making the city a healthier, wealthier and safer place for all.”

The decision to bring the council’s repair and maintenance service in-house follows the introduction of new government legislation, introduced on the back of the Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2017.