The amount of repairs and maintenance carried out on social housing has fallen this year, despite the government鈥檚 drive to raise standards and meet the decent homes target in 2010.
Figures gathered by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors show that repair and maintenance work in the first part of this year fell by 6% compared with the same period last year.

The fall has come at a time when the figures for new build social housing have increased strongly 鈥� by 7% 鈥� during a corresponding period.

RICS economist Ryan Emmett said: 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to work out why this has fallen off. It surprises us, given that there is supposed to be a large increase in repairs to social housing.鈥�

Emmett added that the weakness in repairs and maintenance could be explained by the cyclical nature of large council projects, which often all come on stream at the same time.

Source

Housing Today