JUDGE us by the second year, is what Heart of Wales Property Service told councillors after being told that their first annual report makes for "grim reading."

The company is a joint venture between Powys County Council and Keir Facilities Services Ltd and its purpose is to repair and maintain the housing, public and commercial buildings that were looked after by the council.

They look after 5,400 homes and 630 properties in the county.

At the 'Learning, Skills and Economy Committee' meeting Heart of Wales Property Service(HOWPS) chairman Phil Oads and head of service, Richard Hersey, were quizzed by councillors over a myriad of issues.

These included questions on changes to their call centre, so-called 'voids' - getting empty properties ready for new tenants, school maintenance and using local companies as sub-contractors or part of the supply chain.

Cllr Graham Breeze, while being encouraged with their future plans, said: "So far you've said that not enough people were employed in the call centre, it was not fit for the task.

"You have had to appoint a manager to deal with a Voids situation which is very concerning.

"You've accepted the problems reported by schools on job numbers.

"You've recognised that not enough local contractors were being used, hopefully you will address that.

"You've presented an annual report that makes for grim reading from what I can see."

"And I've read it over and over."

"Taking into account the large number of board changes, would it be fair to say that HOWPS completely underestimated the size of the task in Powys?

"Or does Powys need to question the authorities role in the setting up of the company?"

HOWPS chairman, Phil Oads replied: "The reality is when we took over the transfer of the workforce, we did not underestimate anything except probably the skill set of those who were transferred over.

"From our point of view in any TUPE transfer we can't have any meaningful dialogue with the staff being transferred.

"It's only at that point did we underestimate.

"There were some roles that just did not exist, in terms of front line managers that we thought were there."

"We didn't underestimate the size of the county but it is a contributing factor.

"I don't think anyone could have done it better, there would be no greens on there (key performance indicators) or positive stories.

"I accept we are not where we want to be.

"I would say judge us on year two not on year one."

One issue that was brought up was the use of Powys businesses in the supply chain and as sub-contractors.

Cllr Gwynfor Thomas, said that the 44 per-cent figure for local sub-contractors being used was "not a good statistic: "

Cllr Thomas said: "I can only judge by what I see in my ward (Llansantffraid) I see people from Stafford or South Wales working on housing stock, which I find difficult to accept.

"When we're talking about spending the Powys pound, I believe this makes it unproductive of financially non-viable."

"I can't see how you can be competitive when they travel such distances.

"I acknowledge you want to make it better, I like too see the statistic there next year so we can judge."

Mr Oads: "There is greater supply chain engagement within the year two business strategy

"Local contractors had not gone through our approval process, which meant we did use people from over the border.

"A lot of the activity is specialist.

"You can't always get what you want in Powys."

"We want to use local suppliers but they have to be the right ones."

The Joint Venture started in July 2017 after 109 workers were transferred to the company by TUPE.

Work has been carried out from the three former council bases in Brecon, Llandrindod Wells and Newtown.

During the next year, HOWPS say that they will focus on trying to do most of the work themselves, becoming less reliant on sub-contractors.

They also aim to recruit seven apprentices.