More than £60m collected in rent by Swindon Borough Council from its tenants was spent on repairs, improvements and staff costs - as well as loan repayments imposed by central government.

The council owns 10,401 houses and flats throughout the borough and in the financial year 2023-24, which finished on March 31, it received £63.013million in rent from tenants.

In a communication with tenants Euclid Street has made public its annual housing report and where it has spent all of that money.

Repairs and maintenance to houses and flats took up £18.4m and improvement works to the housing stock another £19.1m. The total of £27.5m represents 43.6 per cent of the total rent received.

Staffing the housing department costs £7.2m, and other costs, including pension adjustments took another £1.1m.

Specialist services to tenants in sheltered and supported housing and through Homeline cost £9m.

Another £8m was spent on servicing the council’s housing debt, which was imposed upon the council by the government when tenants voted to keep the housing stock as the property of the authority rather than transfer it to a housing association.

Nearly 70 per cent of houses revived a repair during the 12 months, with  68 per cent of those tenants who received a repair in that time being satisfied or very satisfied, and  21 per cent being fairly or very dissatisfied by the repair.

The time taken to effect a repair was a cause for greater concern, while 62.5 per cent were fairly or very satisfied, those fairly or very dissatisfied jumped to  27 per cent.

Councillor Janine Howard, the council’s cabinet member for housing said: “I embrace and welcome anything that ensures that we work constantly towards a better and improved service for the tenants.

“Reading the report there is much to be proud of and working together over the next year we can build an even better service that speaks with [tenants’] voice.

Emily Webb, the chair of the Independent Tenant Scrutiny Panel said: “In a time when many of us, including the council, have been under great financial pressure there have been many challenges, but also lots to be proud of.

“Communication is vital to maintaining and improving the services provided to us and we would encourage all tenants to raise the issues they face, including making complaints if these are not resolved.

“The information provided by tenants reporting issues is used by the council to improve services and dedicate resources to the areas that need them. It is also one of the ways that, as a scrutiny panel, we can ensure that problems get resolved.”

The full report is available on swindon.gov.uk