Overdue housing repairs costs Sheffield Council £4 million in lost rent

It comes shortly after it was revealed that 5,922 council households were waiting for delayed fixes.

One tenant was waiting 818 days (more than two years) for the council to make their front door fire safe and another waited three hours just to get through to the housing repair service on the phone.

In a financial report which revealed the loss in rental income, officers said: “[This] is largely due to the speed of turnaround in the repairs and maintenance service resulting in vacant properties.”

They added the number of empty properties was significantly higher than what is assumed in the council’s business plan.

But despite underperformance in the repairs service, the council is planning to cut it by £5 million.

When discussing the figures in a meeting of the housing committee this week, councillor Penny Baker, deputy chair, said: “We need a serious look at invest to save because if these properties aren’t in a lettable condition then we can’t get the rent from them. It’s just going to go round and round in circles if we don’t do something to stop that happening.

“It’s something we really need to bottom out.”

Financial pressure

Despite the underperformance the council said it needs to make £5 million in cuts to the repairs service this year.

Across the council, officers said there is likely to be a potential budget gap of £68 million for the 2023/24 financial year – several million more than this year.

Speaking about the savings the council needs to make across the authority during the housing committee’s meeting Ryan Keyworth, director of finance, said: “There are going to be significant timing and deliverability risks associated with delivering those savings.

“Taking that much cost out of any organisation is very difficult to do. After 10 years or more of cash constraints at this authority all the easy stuff, to the extent there ever was any easy stuff, has been done long ago.

“We have a job as an organisation to bring our costs back in line with our income.”