Northamptonshire: Tenants waiting years for repairs, says councillor

North Northamptonshire Council said it was clear there was a "challenge" in completing all the repairs

Thousands of council tenants in two towns have been left waiting up to five years for simple repairs to their homes, a councillor says.

About 6,000 of North Northamptonshire Council's (NNC) 8,000 council homes in Kettering and Corby require attention.

NNC took on the responsibilities of Northamptonshire County Council (NCC) after it was dissolved in 2021.

Kevin Watt said his mother had received no response after a complaint about insulation at her council-owned home.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), Councillor Watt told a scrutiny meeting on Tuesday that the insulation "looked like someone had had a fight with it" but NNC had not responded to his mother's calls in February.

He said he had "a load of people who emailed me about their issues".

The council said it was still dealing with the backlog caused by the Covid pandemic.

David Watts, NNC's executive director of adults, communities and wellbeing, said it was not "particularly fair" for Mr Watt to bring up examples which officers were not aware of before the meeting. But he said some tenants had exaggerated issues in the past.

"I know that I've been out to visit a property where we have been told there is loads of damp, we've got water pouring through the ceiling and when we've got there, that hasn't happened," Mr Watts said.

"We respond to thousands of repairs every year, which are completed to a high level of satisfaction that our tenants are comfortable with."

About 3,400 of the outstanding repairs are in homes in Corby - and 2,600 are in Kettering, the meeting heard.

Dan Hannam, NNC's interim strategic lead for housing property services, also told councillors last month that getting repairs down will be helped by £900,000 allocated in NNC's budget for 2023/24 in February.

He said tenants will get a letter from NNC giving them an appointment for repairs.