Storm Arwen damage to cost Sunderland's Gentoo up to £2m to fix

Damage caused by Storms Arwen and Malik will cost a housing company up to £2m to fix, a council has heard.

Sunderland housing association Gentoo said it had completed 2,500 repairs since Storm Arwen struck in November but still has another 2,500 to go.

Addressing a Sunderland City Council committee, Gentoo chief executive Nigel Wilson said it had been affected by shortages in labour and materials.

He said the repair costs would be met through existing budgets.

The bulk of repairs has been to fences and roofs damaged by the storms, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

"A massive amount of damage was caused to Gentoo properties as well as others in the region," Mr Wilson told the council's Economic Prosperity Scrutiny Committee.

About 5,000 of the 29,000 homes owned and managed by Gentoo in Sunderland were damaged in the storms but only half of those have been repaired since November because there are "not enough materials or contractors available to do it any quicker", Mr Wilson said.

"That is regrettable and that does cause a lot of dissatisfaction amongst tenants and we have had to triage it in terms of prioritising the worst damage first and then pick up the rest."

Councillors heard the northern area of Sunderland was the worst hit by storms due to the direction of wind and the age of some of the roofs.

Mr Wilson said Storm Arwen caused the most damage with the subsequent storms adding to the workload.

He said the repairs would cost Gentoo, which has an annual turnover of £160m, between £1.5m and £2m to fix but "we have got to be able to cope with that and we have significant reserves that we have to draw on".

Follow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].