Flintshire social housing mould complaints double in three years

The number of reports of mould and condensation problems from Flintshire’s social housing tenants have almost doubled in the past three years.

A report to the authority’s Community and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Committee this week revealed that in 2022 the council received 450 complaints relating to mould and condensation in tenants’ homes. Last year the number was over 850.

According to Flintshire County Council’s Housing Services Manager Sean O’Donnell, the problem of mould and condensation is being made worse by upgrades to the energy efficiency of social housing under the Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS).

By ensuring older homes retain more heat, by default they also retain more moisture making ventilation vital to preventing mould issues.

“Mould and condensation continues to be a serious concern for us as a landlord,”said Mr O’Donnell.

“We’re doing more and more to our tenants homes to make them more thermally efficient in terms of heat retention and that’s where ventilation and heating is critical.

“The housing stock we have in Flintshire – and across Wales – is the oldest in the UK. In this authority we have 7,400 houses that all have unique characteristics that we need to overcome.

“We go above WHQS where we can afford to but the more we undertake improvement works – and this is a concern we’ve raised with Welsh Government – they’re going to create other problems for us.

“We understand why we need to get these properties up to an A rating, but we’re going to be talking about mould and condensation more and more.”

Flintshire has allocated a budget of £500,000 to survey, clean and make minor minor repairs linked to mould and condensation issues.

“That cost is probably only going to go up,” said Mr O’Donnell. “Tenants can help, by keeping an eye out for leaks, drying clothes in ventilated areas, using extraction fans where they are installed.

“They can also air the properties regularly, even when cold, to get that dry air in and by keeping on top of cleaning.”

“We want to work with our tenants, so we would urge them all if they see an issue in their home, report it to us and we can action it.”

By Alec Doyle – Local Democracy Reporter