Backlog Of Brighton & Hove Housing Repairs Is "In The Thousands"

Council tenants have complained about delayed repairs, with a backlog believed to be in the thousands.

They spoke up as officials presented a report showing that emergency and routine repairs were taking longer than their target time.

Officials from Brighton and Hove City Council presented a quarterly performance report, covering October to December, to four area housing management panels this week.

Workers were making in-roads in reducing the backlog of repairs but housing boss Martin Reid would not be drawn on the number.

The total topped 10,000 at one point and an update is due to be given to the council’s Policy and Resources Committee next month.

Mr Reid said that workers completed more than 8,500 jobs in the final three months of last year, an increase of 1,745 on the previous three months.

There were 5,014 routine jobs in the final quarter and 2,959 of those were completed within the 28-day target while 3,231 or 98.3 per cent of the 3,490 emergency repairs were completed within 24 hours.

Some of the recently completed repairs were jobs from the backlog that was blamed on restrictions in place during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown and on lower staff numbers.

Mr Reid said that the repairs and maintenance service now had the required staffing level and was working through the backlog.

When tenants were surveyed about the standard of work, 97 per cent (456 out of 470) were satisfied.

Craven Vale resident Lee Catt asked how many outstanding repairs could be resolved quickly if the right workers attended the jobs.

He had a leaking shower which took three visits to fix. The delay and resulting damage meant that his bathroom floor needed replacing, all because the first worker decided that he needed a new shower pump rather than a replacement washer.

Mr Catt said:

“It took over a week and I ended up needing a new bathroom floor and a toilet because it’s fixed to the floor. Then there was some retiling because the water had got into the skirting board.

“So a job that should have cost £10 has probably cost £3,000. That’s a regular occurrence on the estate. It starts from when the phone call is taken. The calls don’t get categorised properly.”

Mr Reid said that jobs should be done correctly first time, adding:

“We do need to improve that. It’s your repair service and we want to get it right for you. We wouldn’t want that to happen in most circumstances.”

A new system was being introduced to log repairs online, he said, to try to improve the details in requests for repairs.

Hollingdean Residents’ Association secretary Ian Beck asked about the average time taken for a routine repair getting longer – 84 days compared with 55 days from July to September.

He said that one repair job was requested in January but he had heard nothing back.

Mr Reid said that the council was completing about 2,800 repairs a month and the numbers increased seasonally, with a stormy weekend resulting in about 200 roof repairs.

More calls had come in about mould had come in after the inquest into the death of toddler Awaab Ishak in a housing association flat in Rochdale.

Repairs manager Grant Richie said that more older jobs had been completed so a single repair that may be in the system for a year would skew the average.

A report into the repairs backlog is due to be presented to the council’s Policy and Resources Committee on Thursday 16 March.