Workers will not carry out repairs on Swindon council houses in homes where people are showing symptoms of coronavirus, unless it is necessary to make the house safe.

Swindon Borough Council has told its tenants it will take new applications for repairs to houses and flats towards the end of the month.

Up until now, teams have been working through a backlog reported before the coronavirus lockdown was announced in March.

Anyone who reported a repair before that should expect a call to arrange a suitable time for workers to visit.

But they won’t visit homes where householders are displaying symptoms of Covid-19 for routine repairs.

If a repair is necessary for safety, the council has said it will use special precautionary measures.

It has asked all tenants, when repair teams visit: “Allow us to have unobstructed access to your home, keep your doors open to ensure rooms are properly ventilated and wherever possible, keep a minimum of two metres apart, or 1m-plus mitigations.”