Issue - meetings

By Councillor Campbell – Damp and Mould

“Committee

Notes, following the tragic death of Awaab Ishak who died of a respiratory condition caused by mould in his home, that the Scottish Housing Regulator wrote to all social landlords to request that they “consider the systems they have in place to ensure their tenants’ homes are not affected by mould and dampness and that they have appropriate, proactive systems to identify and deal with any reported cases of mould and damp timeously and effectively.”

Notes that the current process was agreed by the HHFW committee in June 2021 and includes assurance that the council will:

·       give tenants the name of a person that will look after their case,

·       organise a full dampness survey to be carried out in their home

·       let tenants know what the survey finds

·       organise any repairs, including fixing emergency issues like leaks,

·       put right any cosmetic damage,

·       keep tenants updated on what happens next,

·       check if tenants are happy with what we have done.

Notes that many tenants are not experiencing this process in full, particularly in terms of the named person to look after their case, having survey results shared and being kept updated on the process.

Further notes that an update report to committee in January 2022 included actions at 4.15 which included:

·       Recruitment of surveyors specialising in damp and mould

·       Administrative support for case management

·       Enhanced contract management

·       Review of training and support for staff

Agrees to receive an update report on damp and mould in one cycle which:

·       Sets out detail of the current systems in place so that councillors can consider these in line with the request from the Scottish Housing Regulator including analysis on performance

·       Detail of current cases including case length and location, timeframes for repairs to be completed, tenant satisfaction , performance on ‘getting it right first time’ and causes of damp and mould

·       Updates on the outstanding actions at 4.15 from the report in January 2022

·       Sets out an additional decant process to be added to the current commitment which includes a risk assessment and looking at the health and wellbeing of tenants including risk factors such as age and existing health conditions such as respiratory or other illnesses

·       A heat map of damp and mould cases across the city aligned with the a map showing the proposed capital programme for whole house retrofit

·       Detail of the process for using damp and mould repairs case data to help inform the long term capital programme and asset management strategy

·       Detail of how data from damp and mould repairs cases can be used to prioritise the sequencing of stock condition surveys”