Call waiting times for people needing urgent housing repairs five times longer than before pandemic

By Robert Firth, Local Democracy Reporter

Residents in run-down homes are waiting an average of 34 minutes for a South London council to answer their calls.

Staff shortages at Lewisham council mean people needing urgent repairs are facing long delays when they call a helpline.

Before the pandemic, tenants waited on average just seven minutes to speak to a staff member.

But residents now have to spend five times longer on hold before they can register their problem.

Lewisham council has blamed the long delays on an explosion in complaints from tenants over the last 12 months.

Despite employing more people to deal with the surge in calls, it has struggled to find qualified applicants to fill the posts.

A report into repairs by Lewisham Homes, the council’s housing company, reads: “The average call waiting time in recent months has been around 34 minutes, compared to circa 7 minutes prepandemic.

“Over the past 12 months repair call volumes to Lewisham Homes have been significantly elevated well above their historic pre-pandemic levels.

“Along with the difficulties of remote working, this placed considerable strain on frontline repairs call handlers and call waiting times rose significantly.

“Lewisham Homes has increased staffing levels by over 50 per cent in the call centre from prepandemic levels and continues to seek to recruit more staff.

“However, Lewisham Homes has struggled to find suitable candidates and currently has four fulltime equivalent vacancies to fill.”

In a housing committee meeting in January, councillor Aisling Gallagher revealed that Lewisham Homes had interviewed over 20 people for the call handling roles. Despite this, it still hasn’t filled all the vacancies.

Mark Newstead, director of property services at Lewisham Homes, blamed Covid and Brexit for the difficulty in recruiting new staff.

He said: “We know the job market has got more challenging post Covid with people taking retirement, [and] moving out of London.

“Some people who were working from abroad went home and didn’t return. With Brexit the market has got more challenging for a lot of employers.”

Lewisham council has been contacted.

Pictured top: Laurence House (image: Google)