More than 100 Glasgow homes need action over damp and black mould

Council environmental health teams have ordered action over dampness at 105 homes in Glasgow during the first six months of this year.

It comes as one councillor warned housing associations are not responding to mould issues quick enough.

Up until July this year the council received 821 service requests complaints over dampness related issues - with 119 relating to mould in social and private homes.

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SNP Councillor Graham Campbell said: “Damp complaints take absolutely ages to be dealt with and often are blamed on the tenant who are told you must ventilate your house. This is a cold northern European country - ventilating your house isn’t always an easy thing to do.

"The pattern seems to be to blame the tenant for the thing first and then eventually find a structural problem. Yes it can be a neighbouring property. But until the council intervenes the registered social landlord (RSL) is slow to act.”

Speaking at yesterday’s economy, housing, transport and regeneration city policy committee, he added: “This is life threatening to people who may breathe in mould.”

A council official said: “I daresay some RSLs will probably not have significant numbers of complaints on it and that is probably why they are slow to react whereas some of the larger RSLs who have more housing stock impacted are quicker to react such as Wheatley Group who have policies and procedures well documented and their response times are very good.”

He added how on a number of occasions RSLs are at a loss about how to tackle some dampness problems especially in tenements - often because the issue is being caused by another flat.

Another officer said if an issue is not “resolved” by social landlords the council will get involved.

The local authority’s environmental health team launch formal action when there is a nuisance with dampness and mould as well as carry out emergency work. They also step in to make repairs when owners fail to do so.

The council has written to all housing associations in the city asking for information on the systems put in place to deal with dampness and mould. Sixty seven percent have dedicated policies in place to address the issue.

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