Dundee council is set to spend more than £4m on a new scheme which aims to reduce the number of empty council houses in the city.
Local authority chiefs are proposing to intensify the approach to housing repairs in Dundee by allowing construction services to focus solely on the council’s housing stock for around five months.
It’s hoped the measures will help tackle the growing backlog of repairs and reduce the number of empty properties in the city to below pre-Covid levels.
Councillors will be asked to approve the proposals at a meeting of the neighbourhood regeneration, housing and estate management committee on Monday.
Council wrestling with a repair backlog
The scheme comes after concerns were raised by opposition councillors that Dundee was heading towards a housing repair crisis.
Figures published by Dundee City Council earlier this year revealed a fifth of all repair jobs are not completed correctly the first time.
These figures, it was detailed, reflected a deteriorating short and long-term trend in performance.
It was also highlighted that around 80% of reactive repairs are carried out within set timescales – well below the council’s target of 93%.
Council bosses said skills shortages, and difficulties in securing materials and supplies were to blame for the backlog.
Speaking on the proposals, Mark Flynn – convener of the neighbourhood regeneration, housing and estate management committee – detailed the work that will be carried out.
He said: “We have been putting an intense focus on improving repairs and re-lets performance recently and this new scheme will complement a range of measures already in place.
“These currently include using overtime to catch up on the backlog, subcontracting works packages and a recruitment drive to grow the workforce because we know there is a shortage of skilled tradespeople trades across the board.”
Lynne Short, the committee’s deputy convener added: “These measures will all help but there is more to do which is why we want to make council houses the sole focus of Construction Services’ work for around 20 weeks to clear the backlog in response repairs and reduce the number of empty properties to below the pre-Covid level of around 200 by the end of October.”
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