17500 council houses to get annual check for damp and mould
Annual checks have been ordered in all 17,500 Stoke-on-Trent council houses - in a crusade against damp and mould. Stoke-on-Trent City Council[1] has also created a crack 'find it, fix it' team set up to carry out repairs as quickly as possible.
It comes as StokeonTrentLive readers have complained about living in damp and mould-riddled council properties. Cases have included a 76-year-old army veteran with mushrooms growing inside his Tunstall home and a mum-of-two who received £1,000 council compensation over the state of her home.
Now the council has admitted that around 3,000 tenants are complaining about damp and mould in their properties every year.
READ: Veteran, 76, in 'mouldy' council flat found 'neighbour's poo in his bath' - Alan Matthews is locked in a dispute with Stoke-on-Trent City Council over the state of his Tunstall flat[2]
READ: Council tenant demands move as mould grows on daughter Delilah's clothes - Laura Morgan dreads returning home to her Stoke-on-Trent City Council Burslem flat[3]
Council leader Jane Ashworth said: “For far too long, many of our residents have had to live in unacceptable conditions, mostly due to problems with damp and mould, and we are committed to changing that. We have a responsibility to ensure all our residents can live in safe, dry and warm homes and we are taking that extremely seriously.
“From now on, we will be treating damp and mould as a serious housing safety issue. We will respond more quickly to reports, tackle problems before they escalate, and give our residents all the support they need to reduce damp and mould in their own homes. Together, we can make sure all our homes are dry and safe places to live.”
The council has already pledged to improve around 14,500 council properties over the next five years as part of a £117 million investment. More than £50 million will be used to replace roofs, upgrade insulation, and install new boilers. A further £16.2 million will be used for energy efficiency improvements.
Councillor Chris Robinson, cabinet member for housing, said: “From today, we are going to transform the way we deal with damp and mould. We are taking a zero-tolerance approach.
“We have a duty of care to the tens of thousands of residents who live in our council homes and we know that damp and mould is a serious issue. Between 15 and 20 per cent of tenants report some sort of issue with damp and mould in their property each year and the majority of these reports are in the autumn and winter months.
“We do not underestimate the scale of the problem we are facing and we understand that we have a significant challenge with respect to the risk of mould in our own housing stock which is primarily due to when and how some of our homes were constructed, but we are not using that as an excuse. We are taking this very seriously and, by working collaboratively with our tenants and Unitas, our repairs services provider, we will do everything we can to ensure incidents of damp and mould are properly addressed.”
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References
- ^ Stoke-on-Trent City Council (www.stokesentinel.co.uk)
- ^ Veteran, 76, in 'mouldy' council flat found 'neighbour's poo in his bath' (www.stokesentinel.co.uk)
- ^ Council tenant demands move as mould grows on daughter Delilah's clothes (www.stokesentinel.co.uk)
- ^ or click here (www.stokesentinel.co.uk)