£18,000 Bassetlaw Council tenant helpline only used 70 times in year

The Tenant Support and Wellbeing Service is open to Bassetlaw council housing tenants facing issues including financial, legal and mental health problems.

The most common calls were from people facing work problems, health issues like anxiety and depression, or family issues such as relationship breakdowns and bereavement.

It was introduced in October 2022 to relieve pressure on the council’s housing teams, but has received only 70 calls since then.

The council says the service should be measured in the help it provides, rather than the number of calls it receives.

The council paid a provider a full price of £17,849 for the service, giving an average cost of £254 per call.

It has been renewed for a further 12 months at a cost of £13,405.

Coun James Naish (Lab), council leader, said: “The uptake has been low, but this is expected to increase as it embeds.”

Figures show, the service works out at a cost of £2.05 for each of its 6,539 homes.

However, only 22 individual people used it according to a report which went before the council’s cabinet on November 29.

The remaining 41 per cent were referred to specialist external support agencies.

The service is available 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

Coun Jonathan Slater (Lab), cabinet member for housing said: “The value of providing this service should not be measured on the number of calls that were received versus the cost, but the support that is available to all of our tenants.”