Sheffield Council to spend £4.5million on stock condition surveys on its council housing estates

Members of the committee heard that the council has to know about the condition of the stock and how it’s performing – and officers have to show that they are using the stock condition data so they know what’s happening with their rooms, kitchens and bathrooms across Sheffield.

Dean Butterworth from the council said “one of our requirements is that we’ve got to know about our stock”.

He told members that at the moment the council has around 50 per cent of the stock condition data “so it’s not a full picture”.

Mr Butterworth added by the end of the 2025/26 financial year they would have “about 90 per cent stock condition data”.

Cllr Penny Baker (Stannington, Liberal Democrats) said this work “needs doing”.

She said: “We need to know the condition of the stock we’ve got and how we deal with it.”

Cllr Alison Norris (Woodhouse, Labour and Co-Operative) said she welcomed the proposal but added she didn’t know how they got in this position where they had “such a backlog” and asked for assurances that when they are up to date they will be kept up to date.

Cllr Paul Turpin (Gleadless Valley, The Green Party) told members that he also welcomed the proposal but he was asking for more information on “what exactly are we getting for £4.5m”.

He said the £4.5m is roughly £300 per home and he was interested in what the process would look like.

Mr Butterworth said the expectation was to get as close to 100 per cent as they can in relation to the data.

He told Cllr Norris that there were “probably a multitude of reasons” why the council was in this position.

He said part of the reason was Covid as a decision was made back in the day to stop these surveys during that period.

Mr Butterworth told Cllr Turpin that it was going to be a standardised process and the inspections would look at a number of issues.

Chris Ellison, interim director of housing, added the vision was to have a lot of information about the customers’ needs and what the residents want.