Michael Gove writes to housing association about mouldy, damp homes

Housing secretary Michael Gove wrote to A2Dominion after two cases were brought to the Housing Ombudsman

Residents of a housing association are living in damp, mouldy, mouse-infested homes, according to a letter from the housing secretary.

Michael Gove wrote to A2Dominion to warn it about "unacceptable" service levels.

For more than a year, one resident was in a mouldy, pest-infested home, and a second's bedroom had water coming in.

The organisation's chief executive officer admitted services had "fallen short" and changes had been made.

Mr Gove wrote to Ian Wardle, A2Dominion chief executive officer, after the Housing Ombudsman found two cases of severe maladministration.

He said it was "far too late" in the first case by the time a reported leak was fixed and that it took at least 18 months to deal with mice.

In the second case, a vulnerable resident had water coming into their bedroom for 13 months.

A2Dominion is Surrey's biggest housing association, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

'This is unacceptable'

Mr Gove, who is the MP for Surrey Heath, said: "Your inaction left your vulnerable residents in damp and mouldy conditions.

"This is unacceptable. You failed to provide the level of service your residents should expect to receive."

Mr Wardle said A2Dominion had previously apologised to customers and reopened 5,000 historic cases of damp and mould to ensure repairs and maintenance were carried out correctly.

He added that customers' health, wellbeing and homes were a priority, admitting some services had "fallen short of the standards we expect of ourselves".

"There were delays in providing effective repairs in both cases, but we have taken action with wide-scale improvements across our organisation," he said.

"The way we have managed issues in the past was not good enough, and since launching our new corporate strategy we've renewed our efforts to overhaul our processes and ways of working.

"Our re-commitment to focus on providing good quality social housing now sits at the heart of everything we do."

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