Council Reduces Property Repair Backlog After Regulator's Critical Report

The housing repairs backlog for council properties in Brighton and Hove has halved in the past year.

The Regulator of Social Housing criticised Brighton and Hove City Council for the backlog last year when the number of outstanding routine repairs open for more than 28 days stood at 9,653.

The number in March was 4,134 – a fall of more than 5,600 since last June, according to Martin Reid, the council’s director of homes and investment.

The backlog topped 10,000 at one point, council tenant and leaseholder reps were told at a series of housing management panel meetings.

They were told that the number started to grow during the coronavirus pandemic when lockdowns and other restrictions prevented maintenance and repair workers from going into people’s homes other than in an emergency.

The council received an average of 3,500 repair call-outs a month and more contractors had to be brought in to tackle the backlog.

The regulator included the backlog among the serious failings in a report on the council’s housing service in a report published last August.

Mr Reid said:

“We’re working through the remaining backlog. It really has come down quite significantly and we’ll keep reporting that back.

“I’m making sure we’ll have as few jobs as possible over 28 days. That’s been a really significant piece of work from the team and also from the contractors that were brought in to help up with that.”

Hollingdean Residents’ Association secretary Ian Beck said that the way that repairs were handled was “significantly better” than it was two years ago.

He said:

“I’ve had very few complaints from the residents of Hollingdean because rather than come to me they’ve able to deal with it themselves. The repairs hotline is doing a lot better job than it did.”

Bates Estate Residents’ Association secretary Donna James, who co-chairs the north area panel, said:

“It’s really helpful that, when you speak to repairs, you can send pictures and emails which speeds up the process. That really helps us.”

The regulator also flagged up issues with testing smoke detectors and electrical, fire and water safety.

Reps were told that performance had improved considerably with a goal of being up to date with electrical safety tests by December next year.

Nearly all homes now had a battery-powered smoke alarm and the council was committed to ensuring that there were smoke alarms in all homes by October.

Two per cent of council homes had not been checked because of access issues.

All high-risk buildings had been checked for legionella, reps were told, and the remaining blocks should have a water safety check by December.