Council homes ‘are left empty for longer than three months’

COUNCIL homes in Bristol are left empty for an average of over three months before being let to new tenants.

A backlog of repairs means there is a long delay between tenancies, leaving hundreds of homes owned by Bristol City Council empty, while thousands are waiting for social housing.

Between October and December last year, the average re-let time for council homes was 115 days. An update on the council’s housing services was given to councillors on the growth and regeneration scrutiny commission last Thursday.

The target time for turning around council homes in between tenancies is either 50 days or 70 days, according to a report to the scrutiny commission, which gave both figures. The number of households in temporary accommodation was 1,497 – three times as many as in 2018.

The report said: “There has been a concerted effort, agreed by councillors, to focus on long-term (over 12 months) empty properties this year. All long-term empty properties have been reviewed. Each now has an action plan in place and contractor capacity has been increased to undertake the work required.

“This means that average re-let times may stay high or even spike as these empty properties are brought back into use. However, as the backlog reduces, the average re-let time should start to decrease more rapidly after [March].”

Sometimes houses and flats are left empty despite being ready to be re-let, while others need repairs before new tenants can move in. Almost 400 council homes are estimated to be empty in Bristol. Meanwhile, there are thought to be around 67 people sleeping rough in the city.

Speaking to the scrutiny commission, John Smith, executive director of growth and regeneration, said: “That’s something that we should pay more attention to, and we did make some good progress. But the diversion of a lot of resources to Barton House hasn’t helped that. We’re hoping to make some more progress by the end of this quarter.

“We’ve put in additional resources in the repairs and maintenance team. Part of what’s been going on at the moment is a lot of the team have been involved in the letting process once they’re ready. We have made good progress on the repairs and maintenance side, and I’m confident that we can improve this.”