BASILDON Council's leader is vowing to improve the authority's homes and has insisted both the council and its contractors must "work much harder" on repairs on homes across the borough.

Basildon Council leader Gavin Callaghan says Morgan Sindall and the council must do better when it comes to fixing its homes after he met with bosses at the firm to outline "five things we have got to work much harder on."

It comes after the council's performance scrutiny committee met on September 17 and discussed its annual self-assessment against the Housing Ombudsman complaint handling code of practice.

The documents and review found that for the period of 2023/24, the Housing Ombudsman completed six investigations which resulted in the regulator ruling there were three cases of maladministration in the council's response to dampness and mould, repair disputes with managing agents and complaints handling or engagement with resident.

A total of £2,400 compensation was paid. In 2022/23 the council received eight maladministration determinations, demonstrating an improvement on the previous year. Tenant satisfaction with the way their landlord handles complaints is low at 13 per cent and the council was not compliant with the Housing Ombudsman complaint handling code in relation to the time taken to respond to a complaint. 

Speaking in a Facebook Live video, Mr Callaghan said: "One of the key things Labour was really keen to look at was what was happening with Morgan Sindall. I think around 50 per cent of the emails that I receive as a councillor relate to issues with Morgan Sinal, particularly around repairs. When you look at the number of complaints that are coming into the council you see they predominantly relate to Morgan Sindall and to repairs in particular for me that was a red light flashing that we needed to get on top of.

"I met with all of the kind of upper echelons of Morgan Sindall and I made it really clear that in my option there are five things we have got to word much harder on.

"The first is around repairs and making sure those repairs are done. There are no ifs, no buts, and there are no social value substitutes for making sure the repairs in the contract get done on time and on budget. And at that the key performance indicators are met, that we handle complaints in a much better way than we currently are, that the data is shared between the council and Morgan Sindall so that we know what is really going on.

"That we are able to manage the contract in a much better way, so we are holding Morgan Sindall to account in a much stronger way than happened under the Conservatives so that we get value for money as a council. And then the last thing was around communications and making sure that when things are going well and Morgan Sindall is doing things well that we tell people and when things are not going so well we're able to address those as well. It was hopefully a really productive meeting with Morgan Sindall, we need to get on top of this. We've got 12,500 houses across Basildon that Morgan Sindall help us to maintain in terms of the property maintenance, the facilities maintenance of those properties, it's a monumental job, I wouldn't it isn't, it is a huge amount of work and we just need to make sure things are progressing in the right direction for residents and for the council."

A spokesman for Morgan Sindall Property Services said: "We welcome the views and feedback shared at the committee meeting on September 17, and alongside Basildon Council, we are committed to improving the quality service provided to residents.

"We are already implementing changes to our services and processes, including how we approach the complaint-handling process, service efficiency, repair response times and better communications to residents. As a partnership with the council, our priority is to work together on continually listening, reviewing and enhancing the service we provide to residents, so they can live in comfortable, healthy homes."