Date published: 2024-03-08 | Category: Housing, Delivering for local residents
Providers of social housing in Bath & North East Somerset are being invited to sign up to a new Damp and Mould Charter that aims to improve conditions for tenants living in their properties and ensure a standard of response by landlords when taking action on damp and mould.
The council worked with partners including Curo, LiveWest, the YMCA and the Guiness Partnership, to draw up the charter and all the other registered providers across the district will be sent an invitation to sign up.
The charter commits the signatories to deliver on the recommendations set out in a report by the Housing Ombudsman Service in October 2021. The charter establishes a set of four principles that landlords will use to inform their approach to damp and mould in their housing stock:
- fostering a zero-tolerance culture to damp and mould by ensuring prevention and intervention is prioritised
- move from a reactive to a proactive approach by inviting reports and feedback and providing a quick, efficient process for resolving issues
- take responsibility by seeking ways to prevent, detect and address issues
- focus on the fabric of the property by identifying inherent or structural factors that lead homes to be more susceptible to damp and mould.
Councillor Matt McCabe, cabinet member for Built Environment and sustainable Development, said: “Thank you to our partners who have worked with us to draw up this charter. We know that damp, cold or mouldy homes can cause asthma and infections in children and respiratory conditions in older people and we are committed to tackling this issue in order to improve the living conditions of residents. We are encouraging providers of social housing in B&NES to sign up to the charter and ensure that tenants have a safe, decent home to live in.”
Full details of the Damp and Mould Charter can be found on the council website alongside a list of the registered providers who have already signed up.
The council website also includes guidance on how to deal with damp, mould and cold and an online form for tenants in both social housing and private rented accommodation, to report a problem with damp or mould in their rented home.
Editor’s notes
The Housing Ombudsman published a report ‘Spotlight on damp and mould - It’s not lifestyle’ in October 2021 in response to the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak, who died in 2020 from prolonged exposure to black mould in his family’s social housing flat in Rochdale. It identifies best practice and makes 26 recommendations for landlords to implement.
Bath & North East Somerset Council’s Health and Dousing Damp and Mould Project was initiated in response to this report.
The project is a collaboration between Housing Services and Public Health, developed in partnership with the providers of social housing in B&NES.
ENDS