Council home survey deal worth £1.5m to be decided

Sandwell Council is set to award a contract to survey 14,000 homes after its record-keeping was criticised

More than £2.4m will be spent inspecting thousands of council houses in Sandwell following a damning review.

Sandwell Council plans to award a £1.5m contract to survey 14,000 homes, after an inspection earlier this year showed the authority only had up-to-date records for standards at just 5% of its properties.

The council’s cabinet is set to meet on Wednesday and give the contract to consultants Ridge and Partners, which was awarded £855,000 in August to survey 9,000 houses.

The surveys check for damp, mould, asbestos, structural issues, and other hazards.

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) gave the Labour-run council a C3 grade in October, meaning the authority had failed to meet new consumer standards. Record-keeping was particularly criticised.

The RSH inspection found the council was facing a huge backlog of 14,000 repairs – with more than 90 per cent still to be assigned.

The regulator added that accurate and up-to-date information was only available for 5% of the council’s homes, while asbestos surveys and re-inspections had only been carried out on 2% of properties.

It was the first time the local authority had been graded following the introduction of the new consumer standard regulations in April.

The council cabinet report said that Ridge and Partners were “familiar with the council’s stock” as they had already started work on the August contract and this would “significantly reduce start-up time”.

The cabinet discussed the state of Sandwell’s council houses more than two years ago, with the authority’s struggle to keep track of the condition of its properties then described as “challenging” and “significantly compromised”.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, which covers councils and other public service organisations.