Council leaders have vowed to crack down on damp and mould in city homes – and more than £50m will be spent on bringing housing up to scratch.

Thousands of homes in Stoke-on-Trent are said to be blighted by damp and mould issues, which can take a toll on physical and mental health.

But the city council's new administration has now pledged to take a zero tolerance approach to issues reported in its housing stock. A new campaign to "find it, fix it" was launched on Tuesday (November 7) by council leader Jane Ashworth.

The campaign includes a dedicated team to respond to reports of damp and mould and complete repairs as quickly as possible. Annual checks will also be carried out on council homes to help identify incidents.

Council leader, Jane Ashworth, has pledged to take a zero tolerance approach to damp and mould issues (LDRS).

Councillor Ashworth said: "Too many people, for far too long, have had to live in unacceptable conditions. It can affect people's physical and mental health, it affects wellbeing and is demoralising.

"No-one should live in unhealthy housing in the 21st century and it is our intention to sort that, starting with council housing stock. Find it, fix it is our rallying call to eradicate damp and mould and we are going to move quickly to ensure our properties are damp and mould-free.

"We are charged with making sure the council shapes up to improve the lives of people in our city and this is an issue that affects so many people. Our investigations tell us there are probably about 3,000 homes that have a problem.

"We are adopting a zero-tolerance approach. We cannot have people in our city living with damp and black mould – It's just not acceptable in this day and age."

Around £50.6m has been earmarked to ensure all council homes meet the national "Decent Homes" standard. This money comes from funds that can only be spent on housing and follows an announcement in the summer of a £117m investment programme which will see improvements made to around 14,500 council homes over the next five years.

Around £50.6m has been earmarked by the council to ensure all homes meet the national standard (Nub News).

The work aims to tackle the main causes of damp and mould in houses and includes replacement roofs, installation of new boilers and upgrading insulation. A further £16.2m will be spent on energy efficiency improvements.

A dedicated webpage is also being launched to make it easier for residents to report damp and mould issues and get advice. Speaking at Tuesday's cabinet meeting, Councillor Ashworth urged residents to speak up about damp and mould in their homes so the problem can be fixed.

At a cabinet meeting in August she apologised after a mum and her two vulnerable children were left with damp and mould in their home for several months during the previous council administration. The city council was ordered by the Housing Ombudsman to pay £1,000 compensation to the resident, who said the damp was affecting her daughter's acute asthma.

The Ombudsman found "severe maladministration" in how the authority had handled the tenant's complaint. She first raised issues in 2020 and reported that she was still facing difficulties in getting repairs completed in 2022.

Councillor Chris Robinson, cabinet member for housing, planning and regeneration, said after Tuesday's meeting: "From today we are going to transform the way we deal with damp and mould and we are taking a zero-tolerance approach. We have a duty of care to the tens of thousands of residents who live in our council homes and we know that damp and mould is a serious issue – between 15 and 20 per cent of tenants report some sort of issue with damp and mould in their property each year, and the majority of these reports are in the autumn and winter months.

"We do not underestimate the scale of the problem we are facing and we understand that we have a significant challenge with respect to the risk of mould in our own housing stock, which is primarily due to when and how some of our homes were constructed, but we are not using that as an excuse. We are taking this very seriously and, by working collaboratively with our tenants and Unitas, our repairs services provider, we will do everything we can to ensure incidents of damp and mould are properly addressed."

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