Havering Council and its repairs contractor Mears have promised to improve regarding a backlog of unfinished works.
Earlier this month, Harold Hill mother-of-four Roseanne Howard, 31, told the Recorder she battled “floods” of water in her home for two months before repairs were finally carried out by Mears.
At a council meeting on January 18, Havering’s cabinet member for housing, Cllr Paul McGeary, admitted Mears is struggling to complete repairs within its two-week target.
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This has led to a backlog of 2,038 repair jobs “in progress”, well over the agreed “acceptable upper limit” of 1,650.
Cllr McGeary said both the council and Mears “fully recognise” the need to improve.
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He told the meeting: “Since [April 2022] both parties have worked hard to ensure success, but we have encountered some challenges that have hampered our ability to fully deliver what we expected at this stage.
“The council and Mears both fully recognise the need to improve and have jointly implemented an improvement plan.”
Under the plan agreed in November, Mears will fill 10 staff vacancies by February, increase productivity from 3.2 to 3.5 jobs per day, and bring in a “task team” of 16 extra staff to cut the backlog.
A spokesperson for Mears said there is a “national recruiting gap” among repairs and maintenance tradespeople and urged any Havering residents to get in touch if they are interested in working at the company.
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They told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “Mears took over the Havering contract in 2021 and we share the ambition the council set to make the repairs service the best in London.
“Due to the national recruiting gap and a greater number of jobs than we anticipated, the team is not yet at full strength.
“We are actively recruiting in the local area and we have a plan to reduce the number of outstanding jobs in the coming weeks.”
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