Covid and new legislation blamed for council house repair delays

Nearly 40% of council homes which are on the waiting list for repairs are behind target.

A Freedom of Information Request (FOI) has revealed that as of May this year, 3,540 council homes in Caerphilly County Borough are in need of repairs and 1,378 of these have seen delays to expected completion dates.

The FOI also revealed that the council is 31 members of staff short in the housing department.

Repairs are typically undertaken by the council’s in-house team, but contractors can also be used when support is needed.

Independent councillor Kevin Etheridge has been told by the council’s housing department that the delays are due to Covid restrictions, new legislation, material supplies, and staff shortages.

Cllr Etheridge said he believes housing repairs should be a priority. He added: “The whole situation needs to be examined.”

In an email, the council’s head of housing, Nick Taylor-Williams, told Cllr Etheridge the backlog had increased since pre-Covid. He added: “The backlog of repairs is higher than we would usually have, although this is now reducing on a week-by-week basis and we usually have a working backlog of around 1,200 to 2,000 repairs.

“We generally complete in excess of 28,500 repairs each year.”

Each repair brought to the council’s attention is categorised by its urgency, for example: a repair could be a same-day emergency, or a larger planned work would be undertaken within 60 working days.

According to the FOI, all same day emergency repairs have been completed, but all other categories have seen delays.

Cabinet member for housing, Shayne Cook, said: “The council owns and manages over 10,000 homes across the county borough and we have recently celebrated the successful completion of our £260 million Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS) programme. This major investment programme has transformed our housing stock for thousands of local tenants, but with such a large housing portfolio it is inevitable that we will have ongoing repairs and improvements.

“Unfortunately this work has been impacted by a number of external factors, such as supply chain disruption affecting materials and suppliers and the impact of Covid lockdowns – which restricted access to properties and the availability of staff due to sickness.

“However, I want to assure our tenants that we are working hard to clear the backlog as quickly as possible.”