THE Town Hall housing team was criticised for “going backward” as figures reveal that the percentage of successful first-time repairs has fallen every year since 2016.

From April to December last year, 81 per cent of Islington Council’s repairs were fixed on the first visit, short of the 85 per cent target set in 2016.

This figure was down from 84 per cent across the same period the previous year and 85 per cent in 2016.

The council broke its contract with construction and services conglomerate Kier Group in 2014 and has run its own gas and repairs services for about 30,000 homes since.

It completes about 70,000 responsive repairs a year on average.

At a housing scrutiny committee meeting on Tuesday, Finsbury Park councillor Gary Heather said: “We have slipped to 81 per cent. It used to be 84 per cent last year.

“I have watched it go down. I don’t want to dwell on that though. We need to move forward on this [making first-time improvements] because we are actually going backward.”

Islington housing chief Diarmaid Ward was brought before the housing scrutiny committee to answer questions on the council’s quarterly performance.

He said: “Eighty-one per cent is where we are. It’s not where we want to be. Since repairs were brought in-house, we have been doing pretty well, but there is always room for improvement.”

Repairs for another 6,500 council homes are the responsibility of Partners for Improvement, which operates on a private finance initiative contract.

Its chief executive, Tom Irvine, was hauled before the committee last month and grilled by councillors for providing performance figures they did not believe, as the Tribune reported.

Cllr Ward said on Tues- day: “I would much rather come here and give you an actual figure of where we are. Instead of saying it’s all fine, it’s all brilliant. I am not Tom Irvine, I am not going to sit here and talk about 96 and 97 per cents.”

The housing chief was commended for his honest representation of the figures by Dean Donaghey the “resident observer”.

Mr Donaghey said: “Can I say: thanks for your honesty. That means more. Coming to the table and saying: ‘Yeah we are failing, but we are looking to do better.’ I would rather you stood there and told me the truth rather than the Zimbabwean election figures the other guys [Partners] bring in.”

Cllr Ward contested Mr Donaghey’s assertion that the council was “failing”, but acknowledged his thanks.

A spokeswoman for Partners said: “We take such allegations very seriously and will follow up with the councillors to understand the basis of such comments and to give them evidence as to the accuracy of performance reporting, which is subject to regular checks and audit by officers of Islington Council.

“Resident satisfaction ratings are very important to us and we are, of course, pleased when residents report high levels of satisfaction.”

• Keywords
  COUNCIL HOUSING MAINTENANCE
• Geographical keyword
  ISLINGTON (LONDON BOROUGH)
• Persons keyword
  Gary Heather, Diarmaid Ward, Tom Irvine, Deano Donaghey, Partners for Improvement