John Westmoreland reports on a determined strike against a social housing development and maintenance company in Liverpool

Workers at Livv Housing (LH) in Knowsley, Liverpool are on strike until the end of February. They have suffered years of below-inflation pay awards that are built into the company’s business model.

Livv Housing is a house-building and property-maintenance company that builds and maintains social housing across the northwest. The company runs on debt. LH uses bank loans to support the delivery of new homes. The loans are secured by a floating charge on the housing properties. Maintaining a ‘rolling credit facility’ of £20 million seems to have boosted profits but has limited the money available to pay their workers. As of March 2024, the company recorded reserves of £110.6 million.

Unison and Unite members are out on strike together from 3 February, affecting some 13,000 homes. Picketing has proved to be popular and has drawn solidarity from tenants, trade unionists and independent councillors. There is a real determination to win and this has been boosted by management using contract workers for repairs.

The strike includes repair, maintenance and call centre staff and they are out until the end of the month. The company has agreed to negotiations after the strike ends but this is never going to be acceptable to the workers who have rejected a 5% pay rise because it fails to reverse the real-terms pay cuts they have endured previously.

All the signs are that this is a dispute that can be won. Unison and Unite members are out on strike together, and as long as that unity holds the bosses are going to have to pay up.