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Majority of social landlords eye return to normal repairs service by August
Social landlords are edging towards a return to normal repairs services as the coronavirus lockdown eases, with the majority expecting to have returned to a full service by August.
Figures gathered by HouseMark and shared with Inside Housing show that 70% of providers across the UK are planning to resume their full responsive repairs service and restart major works within the next two months.
The number of non-emergency repair requests in England increased by 28% in May as housing minister Chris Pincher told social housing tenants in a letter that the government expected landlords to resume some maintenance work.
By contrast, councils and housing associations in Scotland, where lockdown restrictions have remained tighter, recorded a further 31% drop in non-emergency repairs requests last month according to the data.
HouseMark estimates the total non-emergency repairs backlog across the UK-wide sector had reached 1.5 million jobs by the end of May.
London housing association Newlon Housing Trust, which owns around 7,000 homes, said it has been “running very close to a normal repairs service” since the beginning of June and is working through its repairs backlog built up since the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
It has told residents that the full repairs service will resume on 1 July, with only non-urgent large, complex jobs needing multiple workers where social distancing is not possible to be rescheduled for the future.
Catalyst, which furloughed a number of repairs staff in April, said some have now returned to work “with others coming back soon”.
The 32,000-home London-based landlord also hopes to have its repairs service up and running by 1 July.
Grand Union Housing Group, which owns around 11,500 homes across the East of England and East Midlands, will resume routine repairs from the beginning of July and is starting to clear its lockdown backlog.
Bathroom and kitchen installations may have to wait longer due to contractors still having teams on furlough, it added.
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In Scotland, 80,000-home Wheatley Group said in a statement: “The safety of our customers and staff is always our top priority and as a result we are still only able to deliver a restricted repairs service.
“However, the gradual easing of restrictions means that as well as delivering emergency repairs we are about to start carrying out other essential repairs where it is safe to do so.”
Essential repairs are classed as those where a resident or building could be at risk and includes fixing broken heating systems or security entry doors.
HouseMark’s coronavirus impact survey for May is based on responses from 159 social landlords managing more than 1.5 million homes combined.
Laurice Ponting, chief executive of HouseMark, said: “These latest repairs figures show the scale of the challenge for the sector, but the restarting of services as lockdown is eased and clear plans from 70% of landlords to reinstate full responsive repairs and major works by August is encouraging.”
Greg Campbell, partner at consultancy Campbell Tickell, said: “It’s a mixed picture, although I don’t think there are that many who are doing emergency-only by now.
“For some, progress to reduce backlogs has been reasonably good and they are in sight of doing routine repairs, but others are further back.
“In many cases people are making up their own minds about what is sensible and practical, taking account of residents’ concerns and looking after staff.
“Residents’ reluctance to allow workers access may have eased somewhat as time has gone on, or they may not want to wait for things to get fixed.”
