Sheffield City Council faces rocketing house disrepair cases

Sheffield City Council said it planned to increase the number of teams to tackle the caseload

The rocketing number of housing disrepair cases facing Sheffield City Council is set to be discussed in a meeting.

The list of repair jobs for council homes has recently lengthened due to a Covid backlog and legislation changes.

The number of new disrepair cases in Sheffield was 117 in 2018, with the figure up to 1,970 in April 2023.

The council said the situation was similar across the country, with the issue set to be debated on Thursday.

Tenants can take legal action against their landlord, including local authorities, for failing to fix disrepair or damage to their rented property.

Council officers said if the authority could complete 95% of repair work within 55 days it would save an estimated £3.5m per year in disrepair claims. 

However, it is currently only completing 6.5% of disrepair jobs within the 55 day target, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

'Large volume of cases'

Before the Covid pandemic there were on average between 117 and 200 cases per year in Sheffield, with officers predicting this to be 500-840 cases per year going forward. 

The council said it planned to increase the number of teams to tackle the caseload.

"Over the last 12-18 months we have worked hard to complete as many disrepair works orders as possible," a council report said.

"Our aim is to complete work within our repairing obligations - due to the large volume of cases this is difficult with our current resourcing levels within the repairs service."

The local authority's housing policy committee is set to meet from 10:00 BST at Sheffield Town Hall.