Harlow Council is delivering on its priority to fix council housing by clearing the backlog in housing repairs with substantial progress being made. In the last six weeks, 3,411 housing repairs have been carried out in total and the housing repairs backlog has fallen again by over 600 jobs.
Through joint working with HTS, the council has been actively pursuing a programme to clear the backlog of works within the system and drive improvements across all repairs services. Reviewing all processes for housing repairs and directing funding towards these priorities has resulted in the reduction in the backlog of works, which has been achieved using local subcontractors and reallocation of inhouse resources to target priority areas.
The council has also seen strong progress in improving void property completions, with over 80 void properties completed and handed back for letting in the same period. This has meant more Harlow families moving into properties from the council’s Housing Needs Register and council properties being empty for less time.
Commenting on this continued success, Councillor David Carter, deputy leader and cabinet portfolio holder for housing, said:
“I am pleased to see strong progress being made to further reduce both the backlog of housing repairs and the turnaround times for void properties. It proves we are serious about fixing council housing in Harlow and that we are delivering.
“For too long housing repairs have not been dealt with quickly enough and an unacceptable backlog has built up. We are now clearing that backlog and have made enormous progress in a very short space of time. We are also bringing council homes back to availability as soon as possible when they are empty as this too has been taking too long.
“Both processes have required big changes in a short space of time to streamline and speed up working practices, which hasn’t been easy but is a testament to the hard work we are putting in, alongside our HTS colleagues, to turn things around.
“Residents can now begin to look forward to an improved repair service and more existing council homes being made available for letting.”
