Tenants frustrated over state of council homes

Tenants living in some Nottingham council homes have spoken out about their poor living conditions after a regulator said it found serious quality and management failings.

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) - the independent body which oversees council housing - said it uncovered almost 1,000 live cases of repairs, which had proven a "significant driver of complaints".

Council tenants living in flats in Eddleston Drive, in the Clifton area of the city, said their homes had been "neglected" for years.

Resident Jason Ralph said: "When you contact [housing services] it is like there's all this red tape."

Following an inspection in October last year, the RSH said problems also included gaps in checks on smoke and carbon monoxide detection measures, while tenants were not being properly involved in decisions.

The council was awarded the second-lowest standards rating possible as a result.

Mr Ralph, who has lived in his flat since 1996, showed the Local Democracy Reporting Service inside his home, which had been affected by damp and mould.

He said external woodwork is rotting, while his fence is held up by a single piece of wood following repairs conducted by the authority's housing services.

"I'm trying my best to keep this place looking nice, but it feels like I'm wasting my time," he said.

"I know [the council] has got financial problems but they need to sort out the repairs."

Breda Taylor, 69, who is retired but works two cleaning jobs, said her flat had been "neglected" over the last decade despite now paying upwards of £80 per week in rent.

While she has received a new boiler, guttering and solar panels, she says she has been unable to lay carpet in her bedroom due to mould, while her wooden window-frames have been left rotting.

"I've lived here for 10 years," she said.

"When I first moved here it was not like this, I would have never moved anywhere like this. It was lovely.

"I was promised new windows, but I've been left in this state for five years."

Kevin Clarke, leader of the Nottingham Independents and Independent Group at the city council and also represents the tenants' ward, added: "[The council] needs to pull their fingers out.

"We are living in the 21st Century, do people really have to live in these conditions?"

The regulator has been investigating all social landlords after new consumer standards came into force in April 2024.

It can award four consumer standards grades - C1, C2, C3 and C4.

The council has been given a C3 rating.

It now manages its housing services itself, after it brought housing services back under its control in April 2023 from arms-length management organisation Nottingham City Homes.

The council said it is currently in the process of undertaking a full condition survey of all 25,000 council homes, and a dedicated team to address problems with damp and mould and clear the repairs backlog is also being set up.

A Nottingham City Council spokesperson said: "We have recently completed a retrofit pilot at Eddleston to improve the energy efficiency of homes in the area.

"We're using the data from that pilot to inform the development of future improvement programmes that will help us to achieve government energy performance targets.

"To support this, we have just completed a bid for additional funding from central government."

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