Housing service in shocking disrepair

They say the report by the Council's external auditors KPMG vindicates their frequent complaints that workers do not turn up and the families wait for long periods for repairs.

The tenants say it is not uncommon to call the workers back several times because the job is not satisfactory.

The KPMG report follows a crisis in housing last year when hundreds of tenants took out legal notices requiring the Council to do repairs or go to court. The authority got the work done but said the action by tenants had cost thousands of pounds in legal fees.

The auditors found poor quality services in many areas, ineffective management and finance controls and supervisors who did not appear to regard public complaints as priority.

KPMG also felt that Council decisions to award contracts to its own Direct Services Organisation without competition meant there was potential for poor value-for-money services

Now the Council - which called the auditors in to identify problems and recommend action - has put a major 26-point action plan into force to give tenants a better deal.

Council leader Councillor Ian Greenwood admits there are serious problems and says Bradford's tenants deserve a Rolls-Royce system.

He says ward councillors have received complaints and every tenant he has spoken to has a horror story.

A member of KPMG staff is working with the team implementing the action plan and a number of measures have already been taken.

Today residents said they were pleased that at last the Council was taking notice, but did not want the action plan to become a "talk shop."

Secretary of Ravenscliffe and Greengates Residents Association, Audrey Raistrick, said: "The service has most definitely been unacceptable and there has been poor quality work. I wrote a letter on behalf of a member of our association about a catalogue of problems, and she didn't even get a reply. It's shocking."

Pam Ellis, chairman of New Valley Road Residents and Tenants Association in Shipley, said: "There are many problems and people have a very long wait for repairs which are sometimes poor quality. I would welcome this and so would many people."

Nell Merifield, secretary of Shipley Federation of Tenants and Residents Association said: "This will be very good if it actually comes off. Sometimes we get a terrible service. People are set against each other when some get work done, and some do not. Shipley has been overlooked time and time again."

Chairman of the housing services sub-committee, Councillor Jim O'Neill, said the steps were meant to bring a "seamless" and unified service where housing management and the Direct Services Organisation worked together and issues were co-ordinated.

He added they were implementing a customer care service and the whole aim was to get an effective service to satisfy the customers and the tenants and the Council.

The authority will now review all its tender procedures, review recruitment and training, seek legal advice on contracts and conduct more thorough work inspections.

The bonus scheme, said by KPMG to have been abused in some cases, will be re-examined and steps have already been taken to make complaining easier.

Elizabeth's case

A mother claims that damp in her Haworth Road council house is making her 12-year-old son ill.

Elizabeth Maltby said her son Geoffrey has had to have his asthma drugs tripled and can no longer sleep in his bedroom at the house in Lynfield Drive. She is backed by her GP who says that her son's asthma has worsened.

"It's terrible. The walls in the house are black and completely covered in damp," she said. "My son's bedroom is soaking wet - the water runs down the walls.

"He's literally choking at night. We've been here six years and damp has always been a problem, but it's never been this bad.

"The house was inspected and in October a workman came round to treat the damp and repaint over it," she said.

"I came home that night and already the paint had crumbled."

Dr Andrew Booth, the family's GP, said: "I am supporting Mrs Maltby as damp is known to exacerbate asthma and these conditions are affecting his health."

A spokesman for Bradford Council's West/Central Area Housing Office said: "A substantial amount of work was carried out at Mrs Maltby's home before Christmas to try and alleviate the problem.

"However, we will be in touch to discuss her concerns and arrange to inspect the property again."

Pat's case

Tenant Pat Hussain says she has waited for 12 years for Bradford Council to put her house in order.

She says that when she moved into the property in Redcar Road in Greengates, her roof was leaking - and it still is. "They have been back 10 or 11 times, but they obviously don't know what to do."

Mrs Hussain says there is also a mystery leak that drips through the bathroom floor into the kitchen and workers have failed to sort it out in spite of eight or nine visits. "I have written to the housing director and councillors and still nothing has happened. I feel as though I am stuck with it for life."

Another tenant, Jackie Shiraishi, says she spent a month living like a mole when she moved into her home at Parkstone Drive, Eccleshill. Vandals threw a stone which smashed her window and the next day she reported the incident to the Thorpe Edge Housing Office. The window was boarded up and she was promised repairs within three days.

Despite six phone calls over the following month, nothing happened, but when the T&A contacted the Council, officers apologised and pledged to carry out the repairs immediately. Mrs Shiraishi said she had been forced to "live like a mole", putting heating and lighting on at all times of the day to keep herself warm.

Michelle's case

Michelle Harrison says she escaped from a bad dream into a nightmare when she moved out of her house into Holme Wood.

Michelle - who was pregnant at the time - moved into her new home with her partner, Dennis Roberts, and youngsters aged two, four, and ten. She said: "We left Bierley because houses were being pulled down in an improvement scheme, but ended up somewhere worse."

She said the house they moved into was terrible and there was a long list of repairs outstanding. "It had to be fumigated, the kitchen floor needed ripping up and replacing and the wall needed re-plastering. It all should have been done before we got there.

"We rang the Council and City Hall again and again. They started the work almost immediately, but we were in an impossible situation.

"We all had to sleep in one room because there was such a huge amount to be done to the house. My baby was still-born and I'm not saying it had been anything to do with what happened, but it was all very stressful and upsetting."

At the time the Labour Ward councillor, John Ruding, described the situation as appalling and said the work should have been finished. But a housing spokesman for the Council apologised for the delay in the work.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.