More that 2,600 Dudley properties yet to be surveyed by council

At a meeting on September 25, members of the council’s Housing and Assets Scrutiny Committee were told the council has been working towards completing a survey in all of its 21,000 houses and flats.

The work was necessary after the authority found in 2023 it did not have evidence of how many of its homes met the Decent Homes Standard.

The council referred itself to the Regulator of Social Housing which then issued a Regulatory Notice against the council.

Property company Savills was employed by the council to carry out the surveys but 3,867 homes could not accessed by the contractor.

The council’s own staff have now completed another 1,253 which leaves 2,614 outstanding.

A report for the committee signed by Kathy Jones, Dudley Group director of housing and assets said: “Only 1,136 have now been contacted by phone, card or further letter. Once these are exhausted, they will be passed to Housing Management for further assistance with access.

“Additional resources have been recruited to assist with completion of the initial programme, along with the ongoing requirement of the stock condition programme.”

Ms Jones told councillors: “We recognise there will be some people who won’t let us in, they are generally the same ones who don’t let us in to do their gas safety checks, electrical checks or to do any improvements to their homes, there is a core group of people who cause us an issue.

“We can use legal processes to gain access to do gas safety checks, we cannot add stock condition surveys as part of that access.”

Cllr Ian Bevan, Dudley cabinet member for housing, told the committee he intended to start a publicity campaign to highlight the importance of the checks.

He added: “We are on this but it is a huge task fraught with legalities and all kinds of issues.

“Is it where I want it to be – no, but we have still got to keep pushing.”