The ten-year housing repairs contract will be worth around £250m and cover reactive repairs and some planned preventative maintenance.

It will cover the 17,000 council houses although the West London borough is also looking at possibly extending the deal to private landlords with the spend rising to as much as £450m.

Council procurement chiefs are still considering whether to hand the work to a single contractor or split the program into north and south lots, which firms will be expected to price as optional deals.

Prequalification documentation for the new outsourcing scheme will be available on e-procurement website https://www.londontenders.org.

The council expects to appoint the new contractors in early 2013.