Council sees huge spike in complaints about mould

A council said it has introduced a "dedicated fast-response team" after a huge spike in complaints about mould.

City of Lincoln Council received 319 complaints from tenants in the last two months, up from about seven or eight a week, a meeting was told.

Officials said the surge in calls had been triggered by an increased awareness of the dangers.

In November, a coroner ruled the death of a toddler in Rochdale was directly linked to his exposure to mould.

Speaking at the meeting Conservative councillor Alan Briggs described the situation as "not good enough in the 21st Century" and asked what was being done "to reduce the number of complaints to zero?".

His sentiments were echoed by Liberal Democrat councillor Martin Christopher, who added: "We are likely one of the biggest landlords in the county, as such we should be leading by example."

Responding, Donald Nannestad, portfolio holder for quality housing at the Labour-led authority, said, while it would be difficult to get the number of reports down to zero, "we are doing our best".

"Until recently, we had very few complaints, perhaps seven or eight a week," he said.

"Now that the problem has been highlighted, people are more understanding of the dangers.

"Our reports are on par with York and Sheffield, who recently announced their figures, and private landlords are also seeing a similar rise."

He said the new fast-response team had been given "damp, mould and  condensation training", adding: “We are working hard to deal with problem, as are all councils since this is a national problem."

The meeting was told repairs had been fully completed and billed at 71 properties, with work at various stages at the remaining 248.

This included some that had been repaired but not yet billed, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

It was also difficult to provide figures on how many of the reports were considered a health hazard, but each case was thoroughly investigated, the full council meeting was told.

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