Labour councillors recently unveiled plans for investing 500 million over 5 years to make improvement to council homes – such as for new roofs and kitchens, and improvements to communal areas.

We also committed the council to creating 3,100 new council homes by 2028, and are currently looking at increasing this further and by working in partnership with our registered social landlords.

We are also investing millions more into Hosing Repairs. Urgent housing repairs are attended to within four hours, and emergency repairs within 24 hours. The average time for all other repairs in the 12 months before Covid was 15 days and provisions have been made to deal with any backlog as Covid pressures ease.

Creating Local Jobs and Opportunities

Our strategy for Council Housing also plays a role in supporting the local economy.

The Council has nearly 200 apprentices within the Housing, Neighbourhoods Service, and Repairs service – and we recruit around 20 new apprentices into each section each year, with many becoming permanent members of staff.

Just in our Repairs and Maintenance Service we recruited an additional 45 apprentices in 2020, taking the total of apprentices in the Repairs Service to 100.

Recruiting more apprentices year-on-year

Our plan is to increase the number of apprentices per year going forward, and the council also offer a number of graduate roles available each year within the service.

As well as recruiting, retainment and development of our existing workforce is also important and we offer opportunities for all our staff to gain further qualifications and training.

Year on year we will be recruiting more apprentices to make sure that we have local skilled people working in either our housing service or for the local companies that carry out work for us.

We think these are providing great opportunities, but don’t just take our word for it! You can hear from current apprentices HERE – https://sheffnews.com/news/bradley-alice-and-marshal-get-skilled-up-for-the-future

Using local contractors

We also employ local contractors and specialists when the need arises. For example, our new Roofing Contract ensues that contractors must be from within the city boundaries, and that minimum of seven apprentices are delivered each year.

What to know more? You can read about our plans for Council Housing in 2021/22 – https://www.sheffield-labour-councillors.org/2021/02/04/labours-plans-for-council-housing-in-sheffield/