Our affordable housing team on how the sector can get ahead of its new obligations on damp and mould

A multidisciplinary team from Ridge spent two days in late November at HOMES UK in London, catching up with clients and former colleagues and taking the pulse of a sector with a long to-do list. Discussions were dominated by regulatory pressures, viability and approvals for new schemes, as well as the challenge of retrofitting the existing stock with limited funds and an industry-wide skills shortage.

Inevitably, many sessions and exhibits focused on damp and mould – Awaab’s law came into force at the end of October, and landlords are now required to fix related issues within strict timelines. Our teams come across damp and mould frequently, not only at an individual property level, but when preparing business plans and asset management strategies too.

Here are our reflections on where the sector is at, and where it needs to be.

Awaab’s Law: a proactive approach is the only route to compliance

Under Awaab’s Law, landlords must address damp and mould hazards that present a significant risk of harm, and emergency hazards, within 24 hours of a report. A range of other hazards will come under the scope of the law from 2026. At HOMES, it was clear that not every social landlord is equipped or resourced to meet their obligations. While some organisations have set up dedicated teams, others are still getting their heads around the requirements, the processes and record keeping they need to put in place, and how to overcome challenges such as residents’ reluctance to ventilate or grant access.

Awaab’s Law demands an unprecedented level of responsiveness from the sector, and compliance will be impossible with a purely reactive approach. The legislation is clear: short-term fixes are not enough, and landlords must also undertake supplementary works to prevent the hazard from reoccurring. This means getting to the root cause, and citing resident behaviour will not satisfy the Housing Ombudsman. For example, a sealed-up extractor fan should be considered as a symptom to be investigated – perhaps of poor thermal performance and expensive energy bills – rather than a problem in itself. There is also a need for clear, effectively targeted resident engagement to educate and highlight the need for access.

Housing management teams will be able to handle the initial reaction and treatment, but investigating defects may well fall into the territory of building surveying defect diagnosis – it takes expertise and experience to determine whether inherent design issues, cold bridging or poor quality construction are to blame, and to identify a solution. This may throw up wider property management or structural issues, which should feed into long-term investment and asset strategies. Could landlords adopt KPIs to measure proactive compliance?

Poor stock data is the real root cause

One of the biggest stumbling blocks to proactive compliance is the sector’s historically poor data collection and management, which leaves housing providers on the backfoot. If they are only carrying out stock condition surveys on a 20% per annum basis, a damp problem could grow over four or five years before they become aware of it. Engaging with residents on effective ways to manage damp can support self-help solutions, bring issues to the fore sooner and encourage contact with landlords.

Neither are stock condition surveys the only time we visit residents’ homes. Landlords need to seize every opportunity to gather information – some clients have already asked our internal and external teams to report any damp and mould when carrying out other inspections. We are increasingly using advanced technologies to gather information and analyse it. Our surveying teams build up a picture of an asset with GIS, thermal imaging, drones and photogrammetry, and our data specialists apply machine learning and AI to audit, cleanse and interrogate that information. If the root cause of damp and mould is a leak tracking down through the building, flat-by-flat repairs will never uncover it, but trend analysis can.

Over recent years, the Regulator of Social Housing has rightly been pushing registered providers towards a single version of the truth on the condition of their stock. That’s essential, but it’s not the end goal: the sector needs to move beyond just collecting data to applying it, and using predictive analysis for risk forecasting.

Grenfell, Awaab – what’s next?

Housing Ombudsman Richard Blakeway described damp and mould as a “grey rhino” event: rather than a rare, unforeseeable “black swan”, it was highly likely, right in front of our eyes, and ignored. The subject of Richard’s presentation was window disrepair (following on from the Ombudsman’s latest report on learning from severe maladministration). He predicts this will be the next grey rhino to hit the sector, with strong themes emerging across different landlords, types of building and parts of the county in the Ombudsman’s caseload.

At Ridge, window disrepair is an issue we frequently encounter during stock condition survey programmes, as well as a lack of window restrictors where these are required. Like damp and mould, this is another area where poor data management and a reactive rather than proactive approach are hindering compliance and endangering residents. The overarching answer is to know your stock, know your residents, and understand what the data is telling you. Until the sector achieves that, any of the housing health and safety rating system (HHSRS) hazard categories has the potential to be the next tragedy that forces a step change.

We can support landlords to develop proactive strategies and data-driven asset plans, through services such as stock surveys, asset management and drone-as-a-service. We look forward to continuing the conversation and helping the sector shift towards greater clarity, foresight and a genuinely proactive approach to resident safety.

GET IN TOUCH

Mark Astbury is a Partner within the Property Consultancy team at Ridge, which specialises in large scale stock surveys and asset management for affordable housing providers. mastbury@ridge.co.uk

Lara Dennison is a chartered building surveyor and Managing Partner of the Ridge London office. LDennison@ridge.co.uk

Kevin Hartshorn is a Partner leading Ridge’s Strategic Housing Property Consultancy team. kevinhartshorn@ridge.co.uk

Yusuf Siddiqui is a Partner within the Property Consultancy team, supporting social housing clients to deliver safer homes via large scale stock condition programmes. yusufsiddiqui@ridge.co.uk