Following the tragic death of Awaab Ishak, the government promised a “crackdown on damp and mould under new legislation” in his memory. Stricter requirements on landlords to investigate and fix serious problems within strict time limits will be introduced via the incoming Social Housing (Regulation) Act. Following on from their analysis of landlord responses to their spotlight report on damp and mould, issued at the beginning of February 2023, the Housing Ombudsman identified “ten key tests for governing bodies to evaluate its organisation’s response to damp and mould”. But, of course, it is not simply about meeting statutory, legal or regulatory requirements and expectations. It is about challenging the way we have historically dealt with damp, mould and condensation and coming up with a more effective, customer-focused approach. HQN has therefore developed this toolkit after talking to members, former managers from the Housing Ombudsman Service, and technical and legal experts.

This toolkit brings together positive practice from across the sector, and elsewhere, to assist members in delivering an effective response to tackling this problem. We suggest you get together a cross section of staff and residents and go through the toolkit. Do not just use it as a ‘tick-box exercise’ but talk through the questions and consider your responses. This is not claiming to be the ‘ultimate guide’. There will be other things providers are doing that are not in this toolkit. If so, please let us know and we can incorporate it into a later update and share with others. But we do believe this toolkit is a valuable resource in helping members to drive up their standards and meet their obligations in this area.