A scheme to redecorate rooms for elderly council tenants in Cannock has gone from a three-year to a 10-year cycle because of financial pressures.
Cannock Chase Council offers the internal decoration service to council tenants who are pensioners for up to a maximum of two rooms done at any one time. Nearly 1,000 households are on the register, which is almost 20 per cent of all council tenancies. Originally the service operated on a three-year cycle with the average cost being £320 per room.
But that, along with this year’s budget being £55,000, the projected programme now stands at 10 years.
Head of housing, Ian Tennant has outlined the situation in his report to councillors who are set to debate the situation and the best way forward on the housing policy development committee on Tuesday.
Mr Tennant has put forward eight options for councillors to consider including stopping the service, increasing the budget, reducing the decoration service to just one room per cycle, introducing a charge and providing a decoration allowance instead.
He estimates that an extra £388,500 would be needed to remove the current backlog in 12 months and then an extra £137,500 a year to meet demand for the service and decorate two rooms every three years. But he said putting extra money into this service could lead to cuts elsewhere.
He said: “There are considerable pressures on the Housing Revenue Account and it is not considered possible to provide additional budgetary provision without a service reduction in other areas.
“There is no legal requirement for the council to provide an elderly persons’ internal decorating service and in comparison with the need to undertake other maintenance work the scheme is considered to be low priority.
“The scheme is however extremely popular with tenants and the decoration work completed by the council attracts almost 100 per cent tenant satisfaction.”
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