Southwark estate officers cover up to 806 households each, a Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted by the News has revealed.
The revelation comes amid ever-mounting claims that the council struggles to stay on top of repair requests, having received a whopping 150,522 requests in the financial year ending 2022.
But Tenants’ and Residents’ Association (TRA) chairs are split on whether increasing the number of resident services officers (RSOs), commonly known as estate officers, would improve the situation.
RSOs are not the same as repairs officers and do not raise repairs or have a say in what works, major or otherwise, are carried out.
But they do coordinate the delivery of council services to residents, advocate on behalf of residents, and do case management, which includes referring repair issues to maintenance departments.
Currently, the council employs 78 RSOs to oversee a total 48,164 households, an average of 617 each.
There are seventeen RSOs managing over 700 households, many of whom manage flats spread across different estates.
Lara Daniel is the TRA Chair on West Dulwich’s Kingswood Estate, where one RSO covers all 733 households. In December, six separate families on the post-war estate explained how leaks, damp and fungus plagued their homes. Lara said: “The workload is too much for our RSO. How does the council expect only one person to attend to everyone’s needs? Honestly, the present officer could do with an assistant.”
Citizens UK, a grassroots community coalition that advocates on housing issues, last week urged Southwark Council to reintroduce caretakers who are responsible for repair cases and would ‘improve the council’s communication with residents’.
But Nick Flower, TRA Vice Chair on the Southampton Way Estate, where one RSO covers 309 households, as well as over 300 homes elsewhere in Southwark, said an RSO shortage was “not exactly the issue”. He said: “High disrepair causes lots of complaints. Poor maintenance causes high disrepair.”
He went on to argue that poor maintenance was a result of labour shortages because there are “not enough qualified plumbers, heating engineers, surveyors, etcetera to do proper building maintenance”.
He said: “Labour shortages [are] caused by a decade of staffing budget cuts and low pay in the public sector… plus Brexit made it worse by cutting off sources of cheap qualified building tradespeople from Eastern Europe.”
Last week, the government’s budget announced relaxed immigration rules to help construction employers fill certain vacant roles. Bricklayers, masons roofers, roof tilers, slaters, carpenters, plasterers and other building traders were added to the shortage occupation list.
Southwark Council has been approached for comment.