Housing bosses at a Surrey council have said they need another £107,000 and more staff to fix deep-rooted problems in the service.
In September, the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) gave Tandridge District Council a rating of C4 – meaning there were very serious failings and potential for government intervention.
Of the extra money, £87,000 would be spent on salaries for extra staff to help the department and £20,000 on “service costs”, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Head of housing at the authority, Jane Rochelle, said: “We’re working at a tremendous pace and I’m putting my whole team under pressure.”
She added: “I don’t intend to take my foot off the gas this side of Christmas at least.”
The council had already carved out £420,000 from the housing revenue accounts operating surplus to kickstart the housing improvement plan before the inspection results came in.
The scale of the work under way was outlined at the council’s housing committee on 11 November.
Housing officers are trying to catch up with national standards right across the service, from rewriting policies to overhauling IT systems and carrying out thousands of overdue tenancy audits.
Housing leaders have said they are focusing on what the RSH calls the “big six” safety areas – things like gas, electric, fire, asbestos and water safety.
One of the main issues is a backlog of about 2,000 tenancy audits, which are basic checks that confirm who lives in each property, identify vulnerabilities and pick up risks like fuel poverty or damp.
Savills is currently inspecting every council home, according to a council report, and said of the 710 properties it had already surveyed – about 30% of the stock – most windows and doors would need replacing “sooner rather than later”.
It also said many homes would need insulation upgrades, and many boilers would require associated pipework and radiators to be replaced.
But officers found kitchens and bathrooms to be generally in a fair condition, and said the stock overall is not in a poor condition, but would be “hungry for investment” in the next decade.
The new housing boss said she was “fairly comfortable” with the results and hoped there would not be any more nasty surprises.
Tandridge’s improvement plan will continue into 2026/27 with progress reported back to both the regulator and councillors.