Speed up reletting of council
homes, urges Tory leader

Now a senior councillor is calling for the average time taken to re-let a council home – currently 52 days – to be cut to 30 days.

Coun Andrew Carter, Conservative group leader, said a reduction would be a financial boost for the council and benefit prospective tenants waiting on the council house waiting list. About 27,000 people are on the list.

Council housing is managed on behalf of the council by four arms-length organisations.

Average re-let times for April-June this year were Aire Valley Homes 74.54 days; East North East Homes 40.06; West North West Homes 48.49 and Belle Isle Tenant Management Organisation 39.81 - giving an average of 52.6 days.

Coun Carter said: “The longer council houses stay empty, the longer people are waiting to be re-homed and the larger the amount of rent the Council misses out on.

“The council’s own figures show that if the average re-let time was 30 days, not the 52 days it actually is, then during the first quarter of this financial year there would have been an additional £230,000 in rental payments to the Council. That works out at more than a million pounds a year in lost revenue.

“Obviously, a few houses will require some work to be done on them to bring them up to a standard where they can be re-let, but the vast majority should be able to be turned around and made available much more quickly than at present.

“The time it takes to re-let a house varies wildly across the city – Aire Valley Homes has an average re-let time of 75 days. Clearly far too long, especially when you consider half of the houses will be empty for longer than this.”

Coun Peter Gruen, executive member for housing, said he too had concerns over the time taken to re-let properties.

He said: “The current performance across the whole of the city is unacceptable. I have made it clear to colleagues in the arms-length management organisations that 30 days is a totally realistic target.

“I have asked that immediate action be implemented to bring the re-let times down.

“The only excuse is that there are times when major improvements are needed before a property can be re-let.”