Norwich City Council taking 101 days to relet house

The delay before empty council houses are re-let - a period known as 'void' - has continued to grow, despite the authority saying it was making “good progress” on tackling the issue. 

The latest data from Norwich City Council (NCC) shows the average time it takes to get a new tenant into a home has now escalated to 101 days.

Norwich City Council office (Image: George Thompson) 

At the beginning of 2021, it was just 26 days, which is still higher than the authority’s target of 21 days. 

The new data covers October to December 2022. 

NCC insists it is working to make homes available for new tenants as quickly as possible and is increasing its capacity to turn round more units. 

The authority owns around 14,500 council homes and has almost 4,000 people on the waiting list.

Despite the growing relet times, the number of properties classed as void has dropped from about 1.8pc in early October 2022 - roughly 261 properties – to 1.26pc - around 182 homes.  

To speed up the re-let time, NCC’s cabinet has agreed to spend £625,000 contracting Gasway Services Limited to carry out significant repairs to 40 of the long-term empty properties. 

Beth Jones (Image: Submitted)

Beth Jones, the cabinet member for housing, told her colleagues this would allow the council to bring “large-scale complex voids up to a letting standard”. 

The aim is to tackle the “whole house”, with improvements for areas including kitchens and bathrooms, as well as heating and electrical upgrades. 

The work will be carried out over 12 months. 

A report to Wednesday’s cabinet said the increase in capacity will result in further reductions, with the aim of achieving a pre-pandemic level of 0.5pc void stock – roughly 72 properties.