New-build council house defects to be investigated

2 hours ago

Elliot Deadyin Cambridge

Gerri Bird, a Labour councillor overseeing housing, thinks the new group is a good idea

Elliot Deady/BBC A woman - Gerri Bird - smiling straight at the camera. She is wearing a red cardigan and red glasses. — Gerri Bird, a Labour councillor overseeing housing, thinks the new group is a good idea

Defects to council homes built within the past 10 years will be investigated by a new group of tenants and councillors.

Cambridge City Council agreed to set up the group at a meeting of its housing advisory board on Monday.

The board was told of issues including problems with communal heating systems and defective letterboxes.

Gerri Bird, the Labour councillor responsible for housing, said it was "important for us to know if there are these problems and to get them sorted out as soon as possible".

The council had already stopped using communal heating systems at new-build flats after receiving feedback from tenants, she told the BBC after the meeting at the Meadows Community Centre.

Contractors are responsible for repairs for the first 12 months after homes are built, after which that responsibility is handed over to the council.

Samantha Shimmon, the council's assistant housing and health director, told the board the new group would look at how new properties had been built over the past decade and what lessons could be learnt.

The panel will consist of council tenants and Labour, Liberal Democrat, and Green councillors.

Council tenant Diana Minns is the co-chair of Cambridge City Council's housing advisory board

Elliot Deady/BBC A woman - Diana Minns - looks straight at the camera with a neutral expression. She is wearing a white and black striped top and glasses. There is abstract artwork on the wall behind her. — Council tenant Diana Minns is the co-chair of Cambridge City Council's housing advisory board

Diana Minns, a tenant who chaired the meeting, told the BBC she felt lucky to have lived in a newly built council flat for the past four years.

She said she was not aware of major issues on specific developments, but that several residents did not know who to report problems to.

"You can have something look wonderful on the drawing board, and when you actually move in, there are one or two things where you think, 'if only they hadn't done it that way'," she said.

"But then perhaps we can learn from that."

Anthony Martinelli, a Lib Dem councillor who will be part of the group, praised the council for introducing a tenant-led initiative.

The group will not have powers to make changes but will be able to make recommendations to the authority's decision-makers.

It will report back on its findings at a meeting in November.

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