Dudley Council housing chiefs under pressure to renew policies amid 'serious crisis'
Dudley housing chiefs are coming under more pressure to review their policies including selling-off unwanted homes.
After criticism from senior Conservative councillor David Stanley at a recent scrutiny committee meeting, another member of the authority says the council is facing a ‘serious housing crisis’.
Councillor Matt Cook, from The Black Country Party, has written to Dudley’s chief executive and also the director of housing with a number of demands, including a freeze on the disposal of homes.
Councillor Cook said: “We owe residents more than silence. We owe them trust, safety, and dignity.
“If the leadership won’t speak up, residents will believe their concerns are being ignored. This letter is about making sure that doesn’t happen.”
Councillor Cook wants for the council to publish a detailed, transparent report on the current state of its housing stock, including the scale of outstanding repairs, the status of fire safety compliance, unresolved disrepair cases and unmet housing needs.
In his letter to director Kathryn Jones and chief executive Balviner Heran, Councillor Cook said: “Too many tenants are living in accommodation that falls far below acceptable standards, whether due to persistent disrepair, delayed maintenance, unresolved fire safety breaches, or failures in basic communication and accountability.
“These are day-to-day realities for families, older people, single parents, disabled residents, and others who rely on the council not just for shelter, but for safe, secure, and dignified homes.”
A spokesperson for Dudley Council told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the director of housing felt it was inappropriate to comment publicly until she had responded directly to Councillor Cook.
The broadside comes in the wake of comments from Councillor Stanley who claimed the council is ‘turning a blind eye’ to tenants who allow homes to become so dilapidated they are too expensive to repair and have to be sold off.
In response to Councillor Stanley at the scrutiny meeting on July 23, Ms Jones said the council was catching up on home inspections after the coronavirus pandemic and added: “The programme of checks has now restarted, we have much earlier intervention.
“We are also much tougher in terms of what we expect before they hand a property back to us – it is a much more robust approach.”
