LAST winter’s storms and flooding are set to cost Winchester City Council hundreds of thousands of pounds in repairs to its council houses.

Almost £160,000 has already been spent – but the local authority anticipates the total bill for the bad weather will be far higher.

It has recently completed a Stock Condition Survey of its properties.

The much-anticipated results are expected to reveal just how much further work is needed.

“After a wet winter we have a lot of damp issues in Stanmore,” said ward councillor Jamie Scott.

“I am very, very keen to see the results from the stock survey.”

Cllr Steve Miller said a lot of the repair jobs had yet to be done: “The survey is going to give us headaches in terms of expenditure.

“The knock-on effect of last winter is still coming through and there’s a backlog of work from that period.”

Chief Housing Officer Richard Botham said: “We’ve been working our way through a significant amount of small works since Christmas.

“It wasn’t the flooding, it was the high winds and the rain.

“We know we haven’t got enough set apart in subsidies plan to fund roofing works,” he added.