Here we are again with yet another story about Thurrock Council’s incompetent and callous housing repairs policy: Mould and flying ants – is this a fit place for young children to have to wash? Thurrock Council’s housing repairs policy under more scrutiny. A policy where officers try to put the blame for issues with damp, mould and pest infestation onto the tenants. Sure, they may be a few tenants who do need a bit of help and guidance on avoiding problems with these issues. The emphasis is on help and guidance that empowers and enables the tenant to avoid further problems in the future.

With the majority of tenants, the issue is with years of scrimping with housing maintenance budgets that end up greatly exacerbating issues with damp, mould and pest infestation. This is the 21^st century. We’re supposed to be a civilised country. There’s no excuse for putting tenants into sub-standard housing stock. There’s certainly no excuse for blaming the tenant and them telling them to fix the problem and pay for it themselves. This is particularly the case if the tenant is on a low income and cannot afford to pay for a private contractor.

Neil Speight of Thurrock Nub News contacted all forty nine borough councillors back in April as part of a hard hitting report on the state of the borough’s social housing stock. Just five councillors bothered to reply. There you have it – a toxic combination of incompetence and callousness from the officers and indifference from the councillors. It’s unacceptable but sadly not unexpected from a council that is simply not fit for purpose…