Routine council house repairs are being carried out more quickly after the service was taken back in-house, new figures show.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council in-sourced its housing maintenance company Unitas last April, seven years after it was launched.

Performance data presented to scrutiny committee members showed that in February of this year, 98.6 of routine responses were completed within the 28-day target, compared to 90 per cent in February 2025.

This is 'markedly above' the benchmarking average for councils, according to the report to the housing, regeneration and operations committee.

The number of responsive repairs being carried out has fallen – 4,579 in February 2026 compared to 7,547 in February 2025 – which managers say is due to work to reduce the repairs backlog prior to the in-sourcing and capital investment in council housing.

But the proportion of emergency repairs completed within 24 hours fell to 83.5 per cent in February, following improvements early in the year. Committee members heard this was partly due to increased demand over the winter following heavy rain.

Mark Freeth, director of repairs and maintenance, said: "We've seen a big improvement in terms of day-to-day routine repairs. We've seen the reduction in volume since the Unitas days and with resource planning we've aligned teams to different areas.

"We now have a dedicated damp and mould team and a dedicated disrepair team. So we've seen a good improvement in performance."

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Councillor Chris Robinson, cabinet member for housing, said that while there had been improvements the council would not 'rest on its laurels'.

He said: "I go to every tenants' voice board meeting, and they're my eyes and ears. They tell me that the service that we provide to social housing is far better than when we had Unitas.

"We change appointment to work around people's shifts, and if a tap is leaking, we don't send an electrician, we send a plumber. We've still got a way to go, but I think there's green shoots coming."

Over the past year, the council's disrepair team has been receiving between nine and 25 letters of claim each month, equating to 0.9 per 1,000 properties over the course of the year, compared to a benchmarking average of 0.62.

The committee heard that spikes in the number of claims were typically due to 'no win, no fee' solicitors targeting areas of the city, and that the city council sees more of this activity compared to other social landlords due to its ageing housing stock.

Committee member Dave Evans asked for further information to be provided in relation to this issue, including the proportion of successful claims and how Stoke-on-Trent compared to councils with similar housing stock.

Cllr Evans said: "It would be good to see a trend over time. If we're improving our service, then the number of upheld complaints should fall."

The city council received 5.7 'stage one' complaints relating to housing per 1,000 properties in 2025/26, compared to a benchmarking average of 4.3 per 1,000. The vast majority of complaints related to repairs and maintenance.

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