Over a third of homes owned by Cornwall Council don’t meet the Government’s standard of decency, a meeting of its economic growth and development committee heard this week, writes Lee Trewhela. 

While noting a report outlining the council’s housing business plan, councillors heard that surveys of council homes in Cornwall show a high level do not meet the standard, which is to be upgraded this year. 

Louise Wood, service director for planning and housing, said the local authority had surveyed just over 35% of its stock and estimated that just over 30% of homes do not meet the decency standard. The council owns 10,300 homes across Cornwall. 

Properties do not meet the standard for a variety of reasons, but the majority are due to the age of kitchens, heating and bathrooms, disrepair of major elements like roofs, and health and safety ratings. 

The meeting – which was held on Tuesday, January 9, at Lys Kernow / County Hall in Truro – heard that the council should have been carrying out 344 electrical wiring upgrades a year but only actually did an average of five a year over the past ten years. 

“Historically we’ve under-invested and this is the moment of truth when it’s all catching up with us,” said housing officer Mike Owen. 

Portfolio holder for housing Cllr Olly Monk said: “Thirty per cent non-decent is not good. It doesn’t sound anywhere near promising at all, except when you look at some of the guidelines they’re scored on. My house, the wiring was done in the ’80s, so it would be classed as non-decent based on some of the criteria used here. 

“There are challenges but as long as the main safety criteria has been done – and we’ve made great strides in making the homes compliant from a safety point of view – there are a lot of reasons that a house can be ‘non-decent’ which don’t necessarily mean it’s a hovel that’s in desperate need of retro-fitting or looking after. 

“This problem has been ten years in the making of under-investment by previous administrations of various colours not getting it right with Cornwall Housing. This administration is determined to make a start on turning that around. We’re investing over £590m over a 30-year period for a housing plan. Do we all want it to happen quicker? Of course we do, but we can only work with what we’ve got available right now.” 

In her report, Ms Wood said: “Our stock needs significant investment which is needed sooner than our previous business plan allowed for. This means we will have to make decisions about where we prioritise our investment so that we have a robust plan to ensure first and foremost that our homes are safe.” 

New compliance areas recently introduced by the Government as a result of the Grenfell fire, including closer inspection of fire doors, will have a significant budget impact of around £2.2m on Cornwall Council, which has been factored into its new Housing Revenue Account business plan. 

The housing director’s report added: “We are preparing resourcing plans which will be part of our next business plan to achieve decency by 2033. We have to manage both a back log of investment and those also failing the decency level each year. The scale of the new investment required is significant and will take between five and ten years to address.” 

The committee also heard that low weekly rents compared to other local authorities has led to relatively low overall income. “Our overall operational costs are average but our day-to-day repairs expenditure per property is high, reflecting the age and repair of our homes,” added Ms Wood.