A council is planning to ‘grow its own’ housing professionals after being left unable to recruit enough trained staff. Bolton Council is to invest £140,000 in creating two apprentice positions to work in housing and environmental health after staff at the authority left due to incentive packages being offered elsewhere in Greater Manchester which include more pay and holidays.
The council said the inability to recruit staff means it is suffering ‘exceptional challenges in meeting statutory enforcement requirements’. They said that hiring agency staff to fill the roles was also proving difficult, with hourly pay rates of more than £50 being quoted for the few available.
The housing standards team at the council, which monitors and enforces the health and safety of homes in the borough are currently operating five positions below the their required number of 12 staff. Vacant positions, which the council are trying to fill, include two environmental health officers , a technical officer, a empty homes co-ordinator and a management support worker.
