Kirklees Together

Today, Wednesday 6 March, the Regulator of Social Housing served a notice to Kirklees Council stating that we need to make improvements to the standards on fire safety, damp, mould, and condensation for the council’s housing stock.

The notice means we will be working with the regulator to improve the way we ensure the council maintains safety for all tenants living in council housing. We will also be making improvements to the way we help tenants who experience damp, mould, and condensation in their homes.

Councillor Moses Crook, Cabinet member for Housing has responded to the regulatory notice:

“Tenant safety is our top priority which is why we referred ourselves to the regulator for these issues. We are aware that we need to get through a considerable backlog of works and want to assure tenants that they remain safe because of the risk management we already have in place. We will be working with the Regulator of Social Housing to tackle the issues raised in their notice and address their concerns around the number of outstanding fire risk actions and levels of damp, mould and condensation cases.

“Over the next few months, we will be recruiting more staff to help increase the pace of delivery across both damp, mould and condensation and fire safety improvements.

“We have several programmes of work already in delivery to resolve actions identified through fire risk assessments and are developing further schemes to address the remainder. For some blocks this means we will be undertaking large scale refurbishment works and for others it means renewals and small-scale improvements to homes and communal areas. We continue to prioritise actions and work based on the level of risk to tenants and the wider public.

“In addition to this, our safety measures are robust and include 24/7 waking watch and CCTV monitoring in high-rises, prompt repairs and up-to-date alarm systems. In all homes, from 6-storey buildings to low-rises, we reinforce safety measures with regular checks and immediate actions after any fire incident. We will be investing over £117 million on fire safety improvements across council housing by 2031.

“Reports of cases of damp, mould and condensation are high and have been since winter 2022. In 2023, the way we respond to reports of damp, mould and condensation was reviewed and changed, this has resulted in earlier understanding of the vulnerability of tenants and the problems with the home. We are continuing to review our approach to damp, mould and condensation and have allocated a further £2 million per year to the budgets for this over the next three years.

“We know that we need to increase the pace at which we are resolving cases and are now looking at further changes and improvements we can make to be able to do this. We are working hard with our contractors to provide mould treatments, install additional ventilation in homes, resolve structural damp and other underlying issues that contribute to levels of damp, mould, and condensation.’’

For more information on the measures in place please visit Regulation Notice – Fire safety, damp, mould and condensation | Kirklees Council