Interserve offloads troubled Liverpool job to Enterprise

Interserve has finally completed the novation of its strike-hit contract for the repair and maintenance of Liverpool City Council's 21,000 council homes to Enterprise.
The three-year contract, valued at in excess of £20m per annum, is now being run by a jv between Enterprise and Liverpool City Council, which took control on Monday.
Under the terms of the novation, 430 staff have been TUPE transferred to the Enterprise-Liverpool jv.
Sam Maroli, managing director of Interservefm, told CJ: "The contract actually started with around 547 staff. There have been some reductions of staff through voluntary redundancies. Last year there was the transition to registered social landlords of around 13,000 houses, and about 90 voluntary redundancies resulted because of this."
It was hoped the novation would have taken place on 5 January, but delays have occurred due to a number of issues having to be ironed out, including pension fund arrangements.
Interserve has made a one-off provision of £5.5m in its 2003 operating profit, mostly to cover pension obligations.