Senior Labour councillor says an improvement plan for the arms-length management company had a positive impact but delays to repairs remain an issue, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

Barnet Homes manages Barnet Council’s housing stock on behalf of the local authority

Barnet Council has insisted its housing repairs service must “go further” to improve.

Cabinet member for housing and regeneration Ross Houston told an overview and scrutiny committee yesterday (Thursday 12th) that repairs being done on time and delays being addressed were “real problems”.

Last year a ‘repairs improvement plan’ was implemented to address these “recurring issues” and in a report on the plan’s progress an increase in resident satisfaction and a decrease in formal complaints was recorded.

However, Cllr Houston said the scrutiny committee still needed to continue to hold arms-length management company Barnet Homes “to account”.

Speaking on the action plan, he said: “I think the repairs improvement plan, that has been put in place, has had results.

“I think we need to go further and I think it’s important that this committee and the cabinet hold Barnet Homes to account in relation to that journey continuing in a positive direction.”

Part of the plan involved creating a ‘P2 Team’ for emergency repairs, a “new approach” to assisting residents.

The team consists of four operatives with skills to complete “the majority of emergency repairs” and a “positive impact” was seen “quickly”.

The report found a 12% increase in the amount of emergency repairs being completed on time year on year.

However, the amount of non-emergency repairs getting completed on time had decreased slightly from 60.7% in 2023/24 to 59% in 2024/25.

Labour committee member Kath McGuirk asked Barnet Homes to speak on the result.

Kate Laffan, group director of resident services, said the positive result was down to the dedicated team which had been implemented at “no extra cost”.

She said: “What would happen previously, when you had a report of water pouring through a ceiling, the plumbing job that was booked-in for another tenant had to be cancelled and that resource diverted.

“That tenant may have had their job cancelled a few times for that reason so the P2 Team has worked really well since it’s been in place starting from May last year.”

Kate said the council still had a “journey” with non-emergency repairs and put the “lag” down to a lot of “old jobs” being recently closed.

“When we started this repairs and improvements piece, we had a lot of old jobs. We had jobs that were going way back, and actually over time we’ve reduced those,” she said.

She added that once closed the service’s “average performance” was impacted. However, she believed by quarter two “non-emergency repairs will see an improved performance”.

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