£598k to be spent on repairs to homes with ‘urgent’ needs

NOTTINGHAM City Council will spend nearly £600,000 repairing social homes with “urgent” damp and fire safety problems.

The money will also be spent on housing repair work and structural improvements amid an increasing number of disrepair claims, according to a council decision published on Monday.

Nottingham City Homes was brought back under the full control of Nottingham City Council in April last year, and the investment on urgent work is planned following the introduction of new legislation. According to council documents, £299,000 will be paid to the property developer Lovell Partnership to deliver “fire safety works, damp and mould works, disrepair works and structural works”.

The same amount will also be awarded to construction firm United Living Group for the works, which have been “classed as urgent and should not be unduly delayed”.

Lovell has previously been involved in building council homes in Bestwood, while United Living was recently contracted to deliver housing in Trent Lane.

New fire safety regulations came into force in January last year, as part of recommendations made in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry report, while there has been a crackdown on damp and mould under new legislation following the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak in Rochdale.

Social landlords will be required to investigate and fix problems with mould within strict time limits, and additional powers will be given to the Housing Ombudsman in amendments to the Social Housing (Regulation) Bill. The money for the improvements will come from the council’s Housing Revenue Account (HRA), which is made up of council rent payers’ money.

According to a 30-year HRA business plan document, published this year, fire safety works and disrepair claims will have a significant impact on planned spending. Repairs and maintenance costs have increased substantially largely due to inflation.

It is assumed that for 2024/25, repairs and maintenance inflation will increase by 15% but will reduce to 3% in subsequent years. The costs of materials have risen 43% in two years, while labour costs are up by nearly 10%, the documents say.

As a result a rent and service charge increase was recently announced and approved during an Executive Board meeting on February 13. Rents for council homes will rise by 7.7% from April 2024, alongside a 6.7% increase in service charges and a seven per cent increase in garage rents.

“The rent and service charge increases are necessary to ensure the long-term sustainability of the HRA budget and the investment needed to maintain properties to required regulatory standards,” documents add. “The current level of disrepair claims are a reflection of underinvestment in the past and will require a substantial amount of investment in the future.”

Nottingham City Council recently decided to buy back 60 former council houses which had previously been sold under the Right To Buy scheme. The authority will purchase the properties with money from both the HRA, and funds from the receipt of the sale of council houses received from the Government.