Wales: Council housing ... repairs backlog

Elin Cadifor Producer Politics Show Wales

Council housing transfers is proving to be a thorny issue for many local authorities in Wales.

Serious backlog of repairs

There is a £3 billion backlog of repairs needed for council houses in Wales.

That figure is based on an Assembly Government estimate of the 183,000 homes owned by Welsh local authorities.

Strict Treasury rules limit the amount of money councils can borrow to carry out repairs, which puts added pressure on them to meet the Welsh Housing Quality Standard by 2012.

Bridgend County Borough Council is the only local authority in Wales to have transferred its whole stock to a housing association.

These not-for-profit organisations do not have to follow the same rules as local government, so are able to borrow money for improvements.

Bridgend's housing plan

In September 2003, Valleys to Coast Housing became the owners of Bridgend's entire stock of 6,500 council homes.

It has borrowed money from building societies and the European Investment Bank.

The Housing Association plans to spend £70m on repairs in the next five years.

It is aiming to maximise the amount of money that stays in the local economy, by employing companies from the Bridgend area to do the work.

The windows are so drafty, they are not up to standard Peter Evans

An apprenticeship scheme is being set-up to tackle skill shortages, with training for carpenters, builders and electricians.

Home alone?

Peter Evans voted for transfer of Council house stock

Peter Evans lives in the Wildmill area of Bridgend.

He has been waiting six years for the council to replace the wood frame windows with new ones.

He complains: "The windows are so drafty, they are not up to standard. We complained to the council about it and they just said 'we haven't got any money to sort it out'.

"There is light at the end of the tunnel, 'cos we have just been told by Valleys to Coast Housing that we should have new windows by September."

Peter Evans was one of the tenants who voted to support the transfer of the council's stock to the housing association.

By law, all council tenants are balloted on any proposed transfer.

But in Wrexham, tenants voted by nearly 59% to 41% against transferring ownership of the town's 13,000 council homes to Wrexham Housing.

That decision has left councillors with a £274m headache, the amount it needs to improve its stock by 2012.

Planning for the future

Six year wait for new windows

Speaking after the vote the Leader of Wrexham Council Shan Wilkinson said that the Council respected the tenants' decision.

"The result is a vote of confidence in the Council's housing service ... the Council must look at how it can best continue to provide the service for the future with the limited funds it has available."

Tenants in neighbouring Denbighshire will also get the chance to vote towards the end of this year.

The local authority decided against borrowing £24m to pay for modernisation.

Building new council homes

If the council keeps control of its stock, we have a better opportunity to address those wider issues Linda Thorne, Deputy Leader of Cardiff Council

But Cardiff Council has rejected housing stock transfer.

It claims to be one of the few, if not the only authority in the UK, building new council housing.

It says there is no need to transfer its homes because it is on target to raise standards over the next decade.

The Deputy Leader of Cardiff Council, Linda Thorne, says there is no public support for stock transfer in the city.

"Many of the issues facing housing are not just about the condition of property. It's about the environment the people live in on the estate and community safety.

"If the council keeps control of its stock, we have a better opportunity to address those wider issues."

Wales is a diverse nation with different areas having different housing needs, according to experts.

It may be that the solutions to housing problems may have to vary accordingly.

But with the huge scale of the modernisation needed, the financial costs will have to be met.

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