MK Council has set out new arrangements with its council housing repairs and maintenance contractor to deliver better and faster repairs, including speeding up how quickly an empty property can be turned around for the next tenant.
In 2019, the Council agreed to invest a record £165m to improve council homes. Since then over 1,000 kitchens have been installed, almost 900 bathrooms and 413 new roofs.
The new arrangements focus on improving the quality standards for day to day repairs and on reducing repair times from an average of two weeks to ten days. As well as doing a better job for existing tenants, this will speed up the time that properties remain empty from when people move out and new tenants move in.
The Council has put in new assurances with its contractor that more resources will be made available to tackle complex jobs, and Council staff will be carrying out regular inspections of homes that have had works completed to ensure residents are satisfied with the quality of work.
From November, tenants will be able to request repairs, book and change appointments, track progress and give feedback through a new app and online portal as well as through existing routes such as drop-in repairs surgeries.
The improvements to housing repairs and planned maintenance is expected to be approved at the Council’s Cabinet meeting on 7 September.
Cabinet Member for Adults, Healthy Communities and Housing, Cllr Emily Darlington said: “Our tenants deserve to live in good quality homes that are warm and safe. We need to make repairs better for our tenants and if things go wrong make sure that Mears can fix them quickly. These changes mean that tenants will have their repairs done quicker and the quality will be better.”
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