Tenants will have to wait for repair work

Feb 5 2010 by Craig Robertson, Dumfries Standard Friday

THOUSANDS of tenants are facing delays with housing repairs after an under-pressure social landlord was forced to place work on hold.

Dumfries and Galloway Housing Partnership say only emergency work will likely be carried out at its 10,000 homes across the region.

The company has been dealing with so many burst pipes and fallen ceilings that many tenants needing normal maintenance work are being made to wait.

Budgets and weather are being blamed.

It’s understood there will be a delay of up to six weeks instead of a minimum of a few days.

But that’s angered Mid and Upper Nithsdale Councillor Jim Dempster who said residents shouldn’t have to live in homes that need fixed.

“I have raised an issue about one constituent in my ward who has waited two years for a non-essential repair,” he said.

“The probable causes are now to be fixed but there will be others who are being forced to wait.

“This decision is affecting tenants who play plenty for their rent.

“It’s not their fault there are too many emergency repairs to make.

“If DGHP’s contractor, Connaught, is snowed under, then DGHP should give the work to local businesses and stimulate the local economy.”

A spokeswoman for DGHP admitted some repairs were being put on hold due to financial reasons but insisted it was being done to focus on emergency work.

She added: “DGHP will continue to deal with any routine repairs required to tenants homes.

“In fact, in the last five working days alone, we have issued in excess of 500 orders for repairs works across the region.

“What we have done is cut down, for a limited period, on the non-essential works that we generally carry out.

“This means that we are not issuing works such as fencing repairs, renewing internal doors and skirting board replacements, etc, unless there are any health and safety implications.

“This is for three reasons: to assist us and our contractor to focus on getting any water-damaged homes fully functional after the recent cold weather situation; to be prudent with the budget for the remaining few weeks of the financial year; and to focus our resources on carrying out an extensive value for money assessment on the works carried out to our tenants homes.”

She added that the company didn’t believe tenants were suffering any inconvenience.