Housing associations in Richmond have apologised for a delay in repairing properties and vowed to work with contractors to sort out any backlog.

Lib Dem councillor Lesley Pollesche said housing associations are letting residents down with "repeat missed appointments, neglected repairs and long delays in contact," during a Richmond Council meeting on February 7.

Lib Dem councillor Jim Millard, lead member for housing, responded by saying the providers were "failing residents in our borough exponentially". He added: "We understand that this is a crisis largely not of their making but people are suffering – our most vulnerable residents, our most disadvantaged residents – and we're here first and foremost to stand up for them, to give them a voice, to give them strength and we say it's time to get a grip, do what you need to do, move resource, reorganise". 

Councillor Pollesche also asked the cabinet member what he thinks of Michael Gove's plans to bring in mandatory qualifications for housing managers.

Councillor Millard said: "I, and I'm sure we all, fully welcome any legislative changes such as mandatory qualifications for housing managers, such as mandatory deadlines for dealing with damp and mould cases and giving back teeth to the social housing regulator many, many years after a Tory government of which Michael Gove was a part, took them away to the detriment of our tenants."

Conservative councillor Geoffrey Samuel urged the administration to write to housing associations to tell them the authority "will not tolerate further such failures".

Councillor Millard said the borough is facing the "worst crisis we've ever seen" in housing delivery for social housing residents and that he would ask for detailed plans from housing providers including RHP and PA Housing as "they're underperforming".

After the meeting, a Richmond Council spokesperson added: "The council hopes all housing associations will provide improvements plans and the council will monitor progress and provide democratic scrutiny to ensure the housing associations get control of this issue."

Ian Watts, executive director of customer services at PA Housing, said: "Our service, particularly for repairs, has at times fallen below the standard we would expect in Richmond and we're sorry for the impact this has had on the residents that have been affected.

"Over the last six months there has been an increase in the number of repairs reported to us by residents, as well as challenges around the availability of resources to do the work.

"We are working with our contractors to resolve this as quickly as possible, while also working hard to improve our communications with residents and local councillors about our repairs service including any outstanding works."

A spokesperson for RHP said: "Like many other housing providers across the UK, our repairs service is currently under pressure with high demand. Due to the continued impact of Brexit and a built-up demand from the pandemic, we've been particularly limited by a lack of skills, labour and materials, which is reducing our appointment availability.

"This means that repairs are taking longer than we'd hope to get sorted – we're really sorry to any of our customers who have been impacted by this. Our customers' safety is extremely important to us, and we'll always prioritise repairs that are classed as an emergency, which includes anything that poses an imminent threat to life, danger of serious injury or major damage to someone's home.

"We're also currently transitioning to work with two new repairs partners from 1 June, which we're confident will make a positive difference to our service. We'll continue to take action to improve our repairs service between now and the start of the new contracts, including using different contractors where necessary.

"We really care about the service we provide to our customers, and we're putting everything into working through these challenges so we can get our service back up to the standard we aspire to deliver."