Harlow Council is set to clear its housing repairs backlog by the end of March with just 14 jobs to complete by that date.
Bookings to complete these jobs have been made for this week and next week and will be carried out by sub-contractors working for the council’s maintenance company, HTS.
The latest figures as of 22 March 2024 show that, since June 2023, 5,467 backlog repairs have been completed from a starting figure of 5,481. This leaves just 14 jobs outstanding to be cleared by 31 March 2024. Of these, all outstanding repairs from 2022 have now been completed.
These major improvements come alongside several measures the council has in place to fix council housing. These include the new tenancy audit programme, which is visiting tenants in their homes, the full stock condition survey to improve maintenance of council homes and the overhaul of how council housing is allocated to ensure local council homes are for local families, with a new allocations policy agreed by Cabinet last month.
Councillor David Carter, cabinet portfolio holder for housing, said:
“We are on course to completely clear the backlog in repairs by the deadline we set of 31 March 2024 which is a huge achievement by all.
“Changing working practices and bringing the standard repair time down from 9 months to 60 days – has really paying off. My thanks go to everyone involved in this enormous project to fix council housing.
“It’s taken a great deal of effort, but I know that with the council and HTS continuing to work together we can keep on top of keeping our homes up to standard.”