As part of the Harlow Council’s priority to fix council housing, council housing repairs backlog figures have begun to fall for the first time in 18 months. The council has pledged to ‘clear the backlog’ in housing repairs this year and the interventions that have been made since May are already having an impact.
The council has reviewed and prioritised the way in which repairs are scheduled and carried out. This has meant that, for the month of June, the number of outstanding housing repairs has reduced.
The service is showing “green shoots” across most trades and the number of tenants awaiting repairs and property maintenance will now continuously fall as works are programmed over the financial year. A significant amount of new investment is being injected into this priority, alongside the use of local SME sub-contractors to deliver the works.
The latest figures show a very positive start for the council’s priority to fix council housing.
Councillor David Carter, Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Housing, said:
“We have pledged to fix council housing and one of the ways we are doing that is by clearing the backlog in housing repairs, which has increased for every month for the last 18 months. Harlow Council has let council tenants down by allowing this backlog to build up meaning tenants have been waiting for far too long before repairs are carried out.
“We are going to clear that backlog this year and I am immensely proud of the work carried out so far to begin delivering on our priority to fix council housing. Our Housing service and HTS have been working hard to significantly change the way we do things, and that work is having an impact as we have now seen that backlog in repairs peak and fall for the first time in June. By batching repairs and using local sub-contracted businesses, we expect now to see a significant reduction in outstanding works over the next few weeks.
“This is just one of the measures being taken to reduce the repairs backlog, which has remained too high for too long, and it is so pleasing to see that we are getting things done in line with our priorities.
“By streamlining and speeding up processes to bring works to completion we are backing up words with action and delivering for our council tenants.”