The borough's MPs and Council have warned that social housing is in crisis with tenants suffering as a result of a failure to carry out vital repairs.

They have written a joint letter to the housing associations that operate all the social housing in the borough demanding improvements in the way they deal with problems.

The risk is that tenants are being left in the cold without functioning boilers or properties that are damp and mouldy.

One woman of 86 was left without hot water for months, while residents in some developments claim association bosses have failed to tackle problems with antisocial behaviour, leaving them afraid to leave their homes.

Housing associations in the dock are Richmond Housing Partnership (RHP), PA Housing, Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing and London & Quadrant.

Richmond Park MP Sarah Olney. Credit: Parliament TV.

The Richmond Park MP, Sarah Olney, said: "As representatives, we have seen a huge increase in complaints involving poor maintenance, and long delays on repairs.

"This standard is simply unacceptable and we have called on RHP, PA Housing, MTVH, and London & Quadrant, to make three simple changes.

"First, create a detailed plan for improvement, second, create new targets to respond to queries quickly and efficiently, and third, work to bring response times to pre-pandemic levels.

"People should not be waiting months for their boilers to be fixed or windows to be repaired, and yet this is happening all too frequently."

The open letter to the housing associations has been signed by the Council's spokesperson for Housing, Cllr Jim Millard, Leader of the Council, Cllr Gareth Roberts, Tenants' Champion, Cllr Paulina Vassileva, as well as the two MPs, Sarah Olney and Munira Wilson.

Twickenham MP Munira Wilson. Credit: Parliament TV.

It states: "We are extremely concerned to see rapidly rising numbers of cases being brought to us as councillors and MPs involving neglected repairs, repeat missed appointments and long delays in contact.

"When we then make contact with you to raise these issues in support of our residents, we are experiencing unprecedented and unacceptable delays in receiving responses from you. This has to change. 

"We understand that this crisis is largely not of your making, with the legacy of the pandemic, Brexit, the war in Ukraine and the Government's handling of the economy all having significant impacts. 

"Nonetheless, the simple fact is that our residents are suffering. Our most vulnerable and disadvantaged residents are disproportionately affected, and it is our fundamental responsibility as their elected representatives to demand that you do everything in your power to improve and do so rapidly."

"We make the following requests:

"That you submit to us your detailed plans for recovery and improvement, so residents can be assured that these have been subject to independent democratic scrutiny and are being monitored by us going forward.

"Give us new commitments on length of time to respond to members' enquiries, based on a timeframe that you realistically expect to be able to meet in the current circumstances - we will then monitor these response times.

"Work with us to establish a road map to bring those response times back to pre-pandemic levels as quickly as possible."