Council has repairs backlog of 4,600 after strikes and storms

It said: “This is only a minor reduction of 15 addresses, however, there are contributory factors that have severely impacted on the ability to reduce the active and ongoing repairs list.

“It must be noted that the industrial action from September until November 2023 significantly affected the repairs service.

“The industrial action led to eight full weeks without the ability to carry out normal repairs and only emergency repairs were attended.

“This two-month period impacted on the active and ongoing repairs list and led to 2,056 repairs not being completed during the two-month period.”

To reduce the backlog, the council is taking a new approach that involves using trade operatives who work on empty properties.

“This approach is in its infancy, and commenced after the industrial action ended. This involves careful planning and monitoring of trade operatives who work in empty properties.

“The empty property and the target timescale has to be managed, as well as booking in work in an occupied property that is located in close proximity to the empty property. 

“This eliminates downtime and driving across the county borough,” the report said.

The team is also continuing to review “all current working practices”, in a bid to “enhance and improve efficiency and to increase” the daily operational performance of the repairs service.

The report said that if the industrial action had not taken place, “it is envisaged that the active and ongoing repairs list would have reduced”, as the repairs team has “routinely demonstrated the capacity to complete an average of 359 repairs per week”.

The report said storms have affected the number of repairs, leading to a “significant increase” of requests.

“The strong winds, heavy rain and adverse weather conditions associated with these storms have caused damage to properties, including roof leaks, fallen trees, broken windows and structural damage. 

“As a result the repairs service has, at times, experienced a surge in demand for repairs, leading to further demand in repair requests.

“The last 12 months has seen the highest number of named storms to date in the United Kingdom since 2016, increasing the demand on the repairs team across all four priority types of repairs, where we received a total of 826 repairs, relating to storm damage,” it said. 

It said the repairs team has been “working tirelessly” to address the repairs but the volume of requests has, “at times, exceeded the capacity of the existing workforce”. 

David Bithell, lead member for housing and climate change at Wrexham Council, said: “We do have a backlog of repairs which we are working on. This has been impacted by several factors including industrial action, several named storms during 2023-24 and significant inflationary financial pressures during 2023-24. 

“We are working on updating members at our July scrutiny committee with some key actions on how best to take forward.”

Nearly 150 housing repair workers at Greenwich Council began a strike over pay last month.

Repair staff at housing association Sanctuary have been striking over pay and conditions since voting for action in February. 

In December, housing and public building staff across Manchester won an 8% annual pay rise from contractor Equans after 120 members of Unite voted for industrial action earlier in the year.