Family receives payout after home left with mould

Stoke-on-Trent City Council was ordered to pay out after it did not respond to complaints about mould

A mother has received £1,000 in compensation after her home which she shared with her two children was left with damp and mould for nearly a year.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council was ordered to pay her because it failed to respond to her complaints.

The Housing Ombudsman found "severe maladministration" in how the council handled the complaints.

The ruling was a "sad and disappointing day for the council", leader Jane Ashworth said.

The mother raised a complaint to the council about holes in the bathroom and roof in August 2020.

She opened a new complaint in July 2021 because the damp problem had not been fixed and was affecting her daughter's acute asthma.

After the Ombudsman intervened, the council made a final stage response.

“For a resident to receive nothing, when her two vulnerable children are living in a damp and mouldy home, is completely unacceptable", Richard Blakeway, from the Housing Ombudsman said.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council said the complaints occurred under a previous administration.

Ms Ashworth apologised for the council's failings.

"The council should have done better and saved the tenant the trouble of worrying about damp and mould and going to the Ombudsman," she added.

She said £117m has been proposed to improve council housing stock over the next five years to deal with "chronic problems too many of our properties have".