‘Horror show’ as Sheffield Council still faces ‘massive’ backlog of housing repairs

Councillor Sophie Thornton asked a series of questions during a full council meeting this week on the housing repairs service.

She said: “Nearly half of logged repairs are overdue and it’s now over two years since I first raised this…

“[There is] toilet water leaking into kitchens, mould ruining tenants’ homes, windows boarded up. It was described by the cabinet member at the time Paul Wood as a ‘horror show’, it still is. When are we going to get on top of this issue?”

Coun Douglas Johnson, chair of the housing policy committee, said it was an ongoing problem the committee was looking to find solutions for.

He added: “It’s fair to say that we know the repairs service at the council has got this massive backlog, is not on top of the game but it is getting towards there – there are definite signs. It is a big backlog and it’s going to take some time to get through but progress is moving in the right direction even though figures show that in the past few months they have gone backwards a bit.”

The latest figures showed there were 14,038 logged repairs, of which 6,193 were overdue.

Coun Johnson said the service was prioritising emergency, urgent and fire safety repairs as well as voids and gas servicing.

He said the availability of suitable contractors, skilled trades people and some materials was proving challenging and the backlog of “smaller, less urgent” repairs had worsened over the last few months.