Council to spend money keeping homes up to standard

In February 2023 the authority approved spending on a five-year plan to keep its housing stock up to decent home standards.

Problems with information on the condition of houses used to calculate the 2023 spending plan forced the council to report itself to the watchdog and start again with a survey all of its 21,000 properties.

A report for Dudley’s Housing and Safer Communities Select Committee’s meeting on Thursday said: “Following completion of the stock condition surveys and subsequent robust data analysis and modelling, undertaken by industry experts Savills, a clear capital investment programme for the next five years has been developed.”

Councillors on the committee were told 87 percent of homes had been surveyed internally and 100 percent had been surveyed externally along with all communal spaces in shared buildings.

The 2024 spending report also predicts the council will need to invest more than £1bn outside of day-to-day maintenance to keep homes up to standard over the next 30 years.

Kathryn Jones, Dudley’s director of housing and communities, said: “This is about investing money in the right places, giving us an informed programme for the next five years then years five to ten. We will keep moving on.”

The money for the work is ring-fenced from general council spending and demand varies dramatically from year to year.

In the current 2024/25 period the council will spend a total of £1.5m on 3.4 percent of homes which do not meet standards while, in the 2025/26 year, spending is predicted to rocket to £31.8m.

Decent home standards cover a wide range of criteria including having a modern kitchen and bathroom with adequate space, insulation against external noise as well as building standards and housing health and safety regulations.

The report for the committee added: “Since the self-referral the council have met monthly with the regulator to discuss progress and have been open about their intention to await full robust stock condition data before setting a new detailed capital investment programme.”