CONSULTANTS the Housing Quality Network, condemned the service inherited from the former borough council as ‘poor, no star and with poor prospects for improvement’

At a special meeting of the new council furious members of the new authority passed a censure motion against the old borough for their “mismanagement of social housing”.

A review, which included input from tenants, highlighted a catalogue of weaknesses.

These included:

No evidence that the repairs service is achieving value for money or that repairs are delivered efficiently.

Poor performance in responding to urgent and routine repairs.

The approach to health and safety needs to be strengthened.

“Key elements” of the approach to customers are missing,

The sheltered housing service lacks vision, accountability and direction with unsustainable staffing and management arrangements

The time taken to re-let empty properties, around 55 days and this may be an underestimate, is too long and standards are low.