United Kingdom

The housing quality in this country is a complete joke.

Whenever I talk to any European or person from the western world they always say the state of UK housing is unbelievable.

Last time I had mould in my house I was assured there was no health issue by two different people, the estate agent and the builder. When I asked them to put that in writing with their qualification to speak of mould on respiratory illnesses they suprisingly had nothing to say. Had to move as soon as my contract was up. Luckily I killed the mould that go into my bed.

There are ways to properly fix mould in homes.
And not just in a "chuck an extractor fan in" way, I'm talking vapor-permeable/non-permeable membranes, breathability, MVHR, damp-proofing, and properly planned insulation.

However, they're more expensive to a landlord than telling the tenants to keep the windows open, so until legislation pushes it, a lot of landlords and property management firms will only slap some paint on and tell people to open the windows.

Imho, it's one of the biggest issues at the moment: Property owners skimping on things because it doesn't affect them, to the cost of their tenants. Boiler blows up? They replace it with a non-heatpump electric one, because it saves them £1000. Never mind that it triples the heating bill; It's not their money.

Making the rules tougher doesn't help when there is little to no ability to enforce them. Unless there is going to be a lot more resources made for housing inspection this will go nowhere.

Seeing Andy Burnham simping of landlords doesn't fill me with much hope this will improve post election either.

Speaking as someone in Manchester near where that child died, also in a house constantly fighting mould...

The mould is caused by our inability to heat our homes due to the huge cost of running heating.

I hate landlords as much as the next Mancunian, but the root cause of the issue isn't them (unless you're going to force them to make their rents reasonable). It's the cost of living crisis, which itself has many for causes... from government austerity plans to capitalists squeezing every penny out of us from both ends - what we earn and what we must spend.

Yes homes with mould need to be cleaned and repaired, but if you don't solve the issue of WHY it was able to take hold in the first place? It'll just come back again.

We've not been able to run the heating throughout our house for two years now, it's just so wildly expensive. I wish everyone in our situation the best of luck 🫂

Plan to force landlords to tackle mouldy homes

Means the cunts will put the rent up next year

Cunts

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Rogue social housing landlords could be forced to repair mouldy homes within 24 hours as part of government proposals after a toddler's death.

Mr Gove said the toddler's death from a respiratory condition caused by the mould in his family home run by Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) "should never have happened".

Speaking at the time, Awaab's father, Faisal Abdullah, said he hoped those responsible would "get the punishment they deserve" after he repeatedly raised the issue but no action was taken.

Housing campaigner Mr Tweneboa said: "Many families across the country are still living in homes with damp and mould, creating misery but more worryingly risks (to) their health and safety.

Speaking at the time, Coroner Joanne Kearsley said the housing association was not "proactive" and asked: "How in the UK in 2020 does a two-year-old child die as a result of exposure to mould?"

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