Somerset Council to support social housing tenants in future floods
A report has come out, outlining what the local authority should do differently when major floods hit
Social housing tenants in Somerset will receive more support from council officers in the event of flooding following an internal review.
Wellington was badly hit by flooding in late-September as Storm Agnes swept across the south west, causing damage to homes and businesses and creating chaos for motorists.
Among the properties directly affected by the flooding were 19 council-owned bungalows on Bovet Street, along with two council houses on Oaken Ground in the neighbouring village of Rockwell Green.
Somerset Council’s housing service responded to the flooding, providing sandbags clearing drains and evacuating the tenants from five properties into local hotels.
The council has now published a report on the flooding, highlighting how it could respond better in the future.
A report on the flood incident was published before a meeting of the council’s tenant strategic group held in Taunton on Monday evening (November 27).
Simon Lewis, the council’s head of housing, income and tenancy management, described the flooding as “a very traumatic time for all affected” and said his fellow officers had been working hard to “provide comprehensive support” to all the impacted tenants and their families.
He singled out several aspects of the council’s response which worked well or had a positive impact, including:
- Officers being on the ground every day and night to support residents, going “above and beyond”, working antisocial hours and even volunteering their time
- Covering the cost of replacing the carpets and removing furniture while the homes were cleaned out – something many tenants “would have struggled to afford”
- Providing dehumidifiers to all properties early in the process, and paying for the excess heating and electricity costs associated with their operation
- Implementing “creative solutions” to rehouse tenants with complex needs – including one elderly tenant who was partially sight and others with mental health needs or “significant hoarding”
- Regular communication with the displaced tenants to ensure they could move back in as soon as possible
However, he also identified a number of areas where the response could have been better – including:
- Having an allocated coordinator as a single point of contact for the emergency response to ensure work was prioritised, remove duplication and prevent officer burnout
- Improving access to the Deane Helpline, and increasing the resources allocated to it
- Increasing the range of officers on call for emergencies, particularly when bad weather is forecast
- Making it easier to secure temporary accommodation, which posed “a significant challenge” in caring for residents
- Improving coordination with cleaning companies to dry out and sanitise properties
- Helping tenants to secure contents insurance – and specifying what will and won’t be covered by the council’s own insurance
- Providing a clearer policy on what happens when a tenant refuses to leave a flooded or contaminated property
Mr Lewis said in his written report: “We have held two ‘lessons learnt’ meetings with a cross-section of staff and services involved in the incident, and are developing a flowchart setting out the ideal process flow for future flooding incidents.
“We also intend to adapt this for other similar events such as fire. The process flowchart will be accompanied by prompt lists for staff involved in future incidents to aid them in what is required.
” We will be concluding this work with an action plan to follow-up and resolve some of the issues identified and will get this approved by the council’s housing senior management team.
“A separate meeting has taken place with property services to identify properties and addresses that are prone to flooding to agree appropriate mitigation measures that can be put in place to reduce the risk of future flooding and/ or limit the extent of damage caused.
“This includes improvement to drainage, guttering and downpipes and engagement of specialist flood consultants to assess other measures.”