Complaints over damp and mould in Portsmouth council homes double
Portsmouth City Council received nearly 2,000 inquiries about damp and mould last year
Complaints over damp and mould in Portsmouth’s council homes have doubled – and the city’s top housing chief has vowed to continue tackling the problem.
Figures for 2024/25 show Portsmouth City Council received nearly 2,000 inquiries about damp and mould last year and spent £1.5 million tackling the problem.
According to the council, inquiries have nearly doubled from previous years.
One of the main causes of damp and mould is condensation, according to the council. The review report, presented to the cabinet member for housing and tackling homelessness (May 21), said that 70 per cent of the cases have resulted from condensation.
To tackle the problem, the council spent £1.5 million on tackling damp and mould, with a “similar” figure also set aside for this year.
The review examined the demand received for mould and damp issues. In 2024/25, nearly 2,000 inquiries were reported, a significant increase from previous years, almost doubling the number of requests the council had.
Social housing standards have become a bigger focus in recent years following the Grenfell Tower fire and the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak due to black mould in his council home.
Darren Sanders, cabinet member for housing and tackling homelessness, said it was not a surprise for the council that the number of complaints increased since “thankfully”, a coroner told the government “to take damp and mould seriously”. He said now, the government had told “everybody else to take damp and mould seriously”.
Cllr Sanders said: “The overall figure looks very good for an authority and landlord of our size. Very good. That needs to continue, and the pressure must be kept on, but we must do better. The ideal number of damp and mould cases is zero.”
The council’s policy stated that after addressing the damp and mould issues, it would follow up with tenants after six months to check if the problems had been resolved.
According to officers, seven per cent of the callbacks resulted in further contractor appointments to do additional work. “That indicated that we are doing the right work when we’re going out to address that,” officers said.
A key finding is that damp and mould occur more frequently in a particular type of property, specifically in concrete construction.
Figures showed that 16 per cent of residents live in concrete properties where they find damp and mould problems. To mitigate that, the council would insulate the houses to “a higher level” through the decarbonisation program, “hopefully that would go some way addressing damp and mould problems in the future”.
Residents in temporary housing accommodations were also found to be more likely to report damp and mould, with 13 per cent reporting them.
Another finding was that 26 per cent of residents on waiting lists because of overcrowding had reported damp and mould in the past 12 months. “That could be a symptom of being in an overcrowded property, but it does highlight that we can be more proactive in focusing on those particular properties,” it said.
Private tenants can report damp and mould issues to their landlords. However, if their landlords fail to act, tenants can contact the council’s private-sector housing team to investigate.
If the council investigates and undertakes an assessment, an enforcement action would be executed. In the last year, 76 requests were received, but only two cases were investigated. The cases that resulted in enforcement action were deemed to be the highest category, which is category one hazard.
Category one is the most severe risk to health and safety, representing an imminent risk to the resident’s health, safety, or welfare.