A MAJOR Merseyside housing association was last night urged to deal directly with local companies – as national repairer Connaught went into administration.

Many Merseyside sub-contractors face not being paid for work they have done for Connaught, who had a huge repairs contract with One Vision Housing for 12,000 former council houses in Sefton.

Aintree-based Flanagan Group took on £200,000 of work for Connaught but has only been paid £20,000, leaving the family-run company facing a hefty loss.

Around half of that work was for emergency repairs following flash flooding in Bootle and Seaforth in July, getting people back into their homes within 19 days.

Flanagan’s financial director, Stewart Handler, said: “I spoke to One Vision yesterday and they acknowledge we did a great job, but now we face not being paid for it. It’s a big hit for any company but we will trade through it.”

The company had originally started working with Connaught on “void” properties but stepped into the breach when the floods hit.