Emergency repairs in Angus and Dundee Council-owned homes take longer than twice the national average, according to Scotland’s housing regulator.
The average time Angus Council workers took to complete emergency repairs, such as burst pipes, was 8.5 hours, compared to the Scottish average of 3.6 hours, although the authority has blamed a recording error.
In Dundee, the average repair time was only slightly shorter at 8.2 hours.
Tenants have suggested the collapse of construction services firm McGill, which was responsible for some repairs, could have contributed to the poor figures.
Angus Council performed worse than its peers in a number of other key indicators, according to the figures taken from the Scottish Housing Regulator’s 2019 social landlord reports.
Only 76% of tenants were satisfied with the repair work done, compared to the Scottish average of 91.7%.
Only 59.3% of tenants were satisfied with the opportunities to participate in their landlord’s decision making, compared to an 86.5% average.
Graeme Brown, Shelter Scotland director, said: “For the most part, Scotland’s social landlords are performing well against the standards set by the regulator.
“A decent home is a right not a privilege and that means landlords have to fulfil their obligations to look after properties and not leave tenants struggling when things go wrong.”
Tom O’Brien, from the Angus tenants steering group, said he had been aware of an issue with repair times in the past but believed the situation had improved.
He said: “It depends how they’re recording the time it takes them to do the job.
“When McGill collapsed, it was raised at a meeting that contingency plans had to be put in place to cover some of their joinery and plumbing work. So that may have had an impact.”
The Scottish Housing Regulator’s annual landlord reports allow tenants who live in around 600,000 homes provided by social landlords across Scotland to monitor and compare their landlord’s performance.
An Angus Council spokesman said a recording error was responsible for its poor figures.
He said: “The majority of our emergency repairs are completed within the two-hour target time, but we recognise that this is not being recorded as it should.
“Accordingly, we are taking action to address this anomaly and have reported a worst case base-line figure meantime to ensure transparency.
“This is part of a wider review of how repairs are carried out, which has resulted in new contract arrangements being put in place in 2020.”
He said Angus council staff were “working hard to enhance participation opportunities for our tenants through new initiatives and creating new scrutiny groups that will have a direct influence on service delivery.”
A spokesperson for Dundee City Council said: “We continually review our service and performance with our tenants and the current policy agreed with them includes a high quality service with more types of repairs included as emergencies than other landlords.
“Performance has improved markedly over past two years and for non-emergency repairs we complete these below the average for other landlords at just under five days.
“Customer satisfaction levels with the service is also very high at 97%,” he added.
