East Devon’s housing service has improved its performance.

Under a relatively new team, the service collected all rents due in the financial year that ended in March, and even secured some arrears too.

It reduced outstanding debt from current and former tenants, with both figures ahead of target.

The data was revealed at East Devon District Council’s housing review board, which is responsible for scrutinising the housing service.

Elsewhere, the service has started tackling its high number of void properties, those that are not let usually because the level of repairs needed to bring them back into service are very expensive.

In the previous financial year, the percentage of rent lost through properties becoming vacant was nearly seven per cent of the total rent collected in April 2022, but had fallen by almost half in March 2023.

However, this was £112,000 more than at the end of the 2022/23 financial year.

“When we came on board, we knew it would be a long journey to improve our voids performance and the resulting lost rent [from empty properties] but we have made good progress,” said Andrew King, assistant director of regulated housing.

“And currently, we are on 2.79 per cent, against a target for this year of 2.5 per cent.”

He added that the council had 105 vacant homes not ready to let, 32 of which were now ready for new tenants, with an extra 10 to 15 due imminently.

Mr King said it took an average of 142 days to re-let properties, down from 245 days at points in the 2023/24 financial year.

Problematic properties skewed this figure, with standard re-lets – those which are seamlessly passed from one tenant to another with minimal work required – taking 71 days.

“We are taking action to improve voids, and we have weekly meetings with all our internal teams and contractors to prevent delays and problem solve,” he said.

“Our communications have improved significantly and our void manager here is working hasrd to develop a relationship with the void manager at [repairs contractor] Ian Williams.”

Catrin Stark, interim director of housing and health, said the team had worked hard to improve the housing service, including focusing on launching an online service for tenants to see the stage their repair is at.

Ms Stark acknowledged that even though 96 per cent of repairs by one of its contractors, Ian Williams, were completed within the target time, only 71 per cent of a second contractor’s, Liberty Gas, were.

The team said it knew “work needs to be done” with Liberty Gas, and that officers had met the firm’s senior managers to “bring things back on track”.

Both companies perform well on emergency repairs.

Some councillors said residents regularly complain that work in council properties remains outstanding.

Ms Stark said the service dealt with roughly 18,000 repair calls in the previous financial year, meaning that it was virtually impossible to check the work done on every job.

She said major projects were inspected, and calls with some tenants were carried out to assess views on the performance of the contractor and the quality of their work.

Cllr Dan Ledger (Independent, Seaton) portfolio holder for sustainable homes and communities, commended the housing team, but wants to increase the number of councillors on the housing review board from five to seven.

“It is something that has also been raised by Cllr Ian Barlow (Independent, Sidmouth Town) at cabinet and full council, as there is a disconnect between this committee compared to other scrutiny functions,” he said.

“This one lacks member involvement compared to the overview committee, which has 13 councillors, and scrutiny committee, which has 15.”

He added that the council was trying to get more tenant representatives onto the board as “we don’t want to lose the tenant voice”.