Reflecting on The Issue Surrounding Damp And Mould

We are slowly coming out of winter, with hopefully warmer weather ahead of us, and it feels like a good time to reflect upon the current agenda around damp and mould in rented accommodation.

Six months on from the release of the government guidance Understanding and Addressing the Health Risks of Damp and Mould in the Home (published 7 September 2023). 

The guidance was developed by a number of government departments, a multidisciplinary expert advisory group and stakeholders, and was published as a direct response to the coroner’s report into the tragic death of Awaab Ishak, who died in December 2020. The coroner concluded his death was ‘as a result of a severe respiratory condition due to prolonged exposure to mould in his home environment.’ 

The case of Awaab, who was two years old when he so sadly died, sent a shockwave through environmental health practitioners (EHPs) working in housing standards. These officers know the risks and work on a daily basis with tenants and landlords to improve living conditions – professionals who diligently use the HHSRS Operating Guidance but know that the hazard of damp and mould must be pretty extensive before it becomes significant enough to warrant a duty to take action. 

Most of us spend the majority of our lives in our homes. The 2023 guidance lays out how living in a home with damp and mould can be detrimental to the mental and physical health of any individual, but especially so to adults and children with certain conditions, for whom the outcomes are more severe. 

Blaming tenants and their lifestyle for the development of mould in their homes has been a common theme and, like mould itself, will no doubt be challenging to shift away from. But it raises the question, how can the problem and the challenges be so widespread and prevalent if the occupants are to blame? It doesn’t add up, and the change of focus that has come with the guidance is a wake-up call. 

EHPs play a valuable role in providing information and education to tenants. The recent guidance is a timely reminder that tenants and occupants are not to blame. It is the responsibility of landlords to identify the causes, be they structural or related to inadequate or inappropriate ventilation, poor heating or lack of insulation, and it is for landlords to find long-term solutions. 

The guidance attributes responsibility in the right direction, and where landlords fail to take timely action, local authorities should use their enforcement powers. The HHSRS review, completed by RHE Global on behalf of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and due for publication later this year, with updated guidance, will support this process. 

Speaking to EHPs working in housing standards, they now have an additional focus on Band D and E hazards for damp and mould. The 2023 guidance has proved a useful resource to highlight concerns to landlords, especially in cases where they are quick to blame their tenants. However, they also note a key consideration is the rising cost of living, resulting in tenants often being unable to afford to heat their homes sufficiently and foregoing ventilation due to concerns over heat loss. This, combined with the ageing and often hard-to-treat housing stock, along with over-occupation, are all important factors that can’t be ignored. 

Tony Lewis, RHE’s Director of Professional Services, was invited to attend the inaugural meeting of the Environmental Health Thinktank on 2 February, the key theme being damp and black mould. The meeting was attended by a mix of EHPs, landlords and GPs, and it quickly became clear that landlords feel pressured, to the point of selling their stock, by what they perceive to be a regulatory system that demands an absence of damp and mould whilst not considering issues such as property construction standards, occupancy levels and culture, affordability of heating, etc. Landlords felt strongly that bad landlords should face the full weight of the law, but they also felt that many good landlords, with small- to medium-sized portfolios, are at the point of being forced out of the private rented sector (PRS) market by a combination of enforcement of overly zealous housing standards and a UK tax system that penalises investment in properties to let. 

The EHPs at the event agreed with the landlords that failure of the Government to address the key issues may well lead to enforced sales in the PRS market and the emergence of a much wider national housing and homelessness crisis. It was agreed that a report of the meeting’s debating points would be sent to Michael Gove for his urgent consideration. 

Awaab’s Law, introduced through the Social Housing Regulation Act 2023 will, once fully implemented through regulations, require social housing providers in England to investigate and take action to fix prescribed hazards in specified timeframes and ensure adequate record-keeping. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is consulting (for eight weeks from 9 January 2024) on how to implement Awaab’s Law, and as we build up to a general election, Labour have promised that they will extend Awaab’s Law to the private rented sector through an amendment to the much-anticipated Renters Reform Bill, which is currently going through the parliamentary process. 

As new legislation is released, RIAMS Libraries will continue to provide up-to-date procedures, guidance and support to local authorities and EHPs.  

Housing complaints, especially those concerning damp and mould, have increased over recent times, and this presents a challenge, with stretched council resources and a limited number of qualified EHPs coming through the education system. We are in the midst of a housing and financial crisis affecting tenants, landlords and local authorities. As always, it is the vulnerable amongst us who will be impacted the most. 

Visit RHE Training for a variety of relevant housing courses, including: 

Understanding and Managing Damp and Mould in Domestic Property [Online] 

Effective Enforcement Using the HHSRS [Online]  

If you would like further information on RIAMS, contact us at [email protected] or join the conversation for free on RIAMS Communities.