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Councils create action plans to tackle damp and mould in social homes
Several councils are setting up taskforces, hiring new staff and expediting stock condition surveys as they seek to combat damp and mould in their social housing properties, council papers reveal.
Barnet, Tower Hamlets and Wigan councils are among those to have published documents explaining their approaches or plans, which include potentially bringing forward and extending a stock condition survey and training staff on damp and mould.
In November, the English regulator wrote to all social landlords requesting they provide assurance that they have a “clear understanding and strong grip on damp and mould issues in their homes” and are addressing risks to tenants.
Councils and housing associations with more than 1,000 homes were asked to provide evidence of their approach to dealing with damp and mould. They had until 19 December to respond.
The request followed the inquest into the death of Awaab Ishak, the two-year-old who died as a result of prolonged exposure to mould in Rochdale.
His family had repeatedly complained to their landlord Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) about the state of the property.
The same month, housing secretary Michael Gove also wrote to social landlords urging them to “absorb the lessons” from the coroner’s report following the inquest into Awaab’s death and to treat damp and mould more seriously.
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A report that went before Wigan’s housing advisory panel in January revealed that the council had set up a multi-disciplinary taskforce to assess the impacts of the coroner’s findings on Awaab’s death across its 21,000 homes.
It created a focused taskforce group and an action plan to respond to the regulator’s request.
According to the report, the group meets regularly to drive this work forward and deliver immediate improvements.
One of the recommendations of the plan is to bring forward a planned stock condition survey by a year.
“This would not usually need to be commissioned until 2024, however it would be prudent to bring this forward to 2023.
“The cost for the last stock condition survey was £110,000, however the scope for the new one will need to cover a broader sample size, so the cost is anticipated to be higher,” according to the report.
The action plan also includes measures for improvements to processes, tenant engagement and training.
The council is also planning to hire a new member of staff in the customer care team as a result of the volume of calls it is receiving.
“We may need to consider additional property inspector capacity if the current volume of requests for inspections from tenants continues,” it said.
According to a report published by Tower Hamlets, the council has set up a working group to formulate a plan to further address issues with damp and mould across all tenures in the borough.
The group, made up of senior council officers across all services, including public health and housing, is “exploring how data on damp and mould issues can be used to improve operational practices and inform local policies”.
Tower Hamlets’ report said: “Communications to residents on damp and mould has been an ongoing discussion at [Tower Hamlets Homes] since the judgement of the Rochdale Coroners Court and a key feature of campaigns since the beginning of the autumn.”
A report by Barnet Council that went before its housing and growth committee earlier this month revealed that it had also created a damp and mould action plan and set out how it approaches the issues.
It has also set aside £2m to deal with damp and mould.
As part of the action plan, the council’s ALMO, Barnet Homes, is training frontline teams on damp and mould.
This includes all repairs operatives, gas engineers, housing officers and resident liaison staff.
Barnet Homes will incorporate an assessment of any current respiratory illness present in any residents that may be taken into consideration when assessments are undertaken for moving tenants for redevelopments.
The ALMO is re-surveying and putting together a schedule of works for all properties where ‘moderate’ damp and mould was found during its stock condition survey.
It is also planning to create a set of measures to record cases of damp and mould and KPIs to demonstrate performance on dealing with those cases.
Responses from councils
A spokesperson for Barnet Council said: “Knowing where we have cases of damp and mould is important so we can tackle it, which is why we have surveyed all our homes in the last two years, specifically gathering data on instances of damp and mould in our residents’ homes.
“This will enable us to target our maintenance programme to deal with the most severe cases first; indeed, we have already completed or are in the process of completing works to 22 cases where the damp and mould led to a Decent Homes failure.
“On top of the £200m we have already allocated to maintaining and improving our homes over the next five years, we will be setting aside a further £2m to specifically deal with damp and mould.
“In addition to this, and so that we can react more quickly to new reports of damp and mould, we have established a Healthy Homes Team to help tackle cases in our residents’ homes. We also have an action plan in place to combat and prevent further instances of damp and mould occurring.
“There can be many causes of damp and mould so providing information and support can be just as useful as trying to tackle the issue once it has become a problem.
“Barnet Council is working with private sector landlords to identify instances of damp and mould in the private rented sector, and take enforcement action, where appropriate.”
A spokesperson for Wigan Council said: “As a landlord for more than 21,000 properties, Wigan Council is committed to providing high-quality, safe homes for our tenants.
“Recently, we established a multi-disciplinary taskforce group to build on our pre-existing work on this issue and help us to maintain high standards across our housing stock.
“The work of this taskforce group complements an existing project to develop a new asset management strategy that drives a proactive approach to disrepair and greater focus on early intervention.”
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