Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee 18 March 2025
Over 90 per cent of our casework is with tenants who have rampant damp and mould. Essentially, we have an endemic damp and mould problem that is blighting the lives of hundreds of thousands of tenants across Scotland. Like Living Rent, we believe that we face an imminent public health crisis.
Let me give you two examples, which involve clients who have given permission to be named today. One is a chap called Alex Gordon. Alex Gordon has lived in a mouldy and damp home since 2010, and, in that home, he has caught aspergillosis, a terminal illness that comes from Aspergillus mould spores in the air. He is 69, and he knows that he will die from the disease one day—he has been told so by his doctors.
Alex lives in a Wheatley home on the south side of Glasgow, and his terminal illness is a result of his having been exposed to mould for a period of over 14 years. He said for years that he had damp and mould in his home, and Wheatley said, “No, you don’t.” It did physical inspections, which were just a matter of viewing the house; someone looked at it, and said, “You don’t have it.” However, two independent studies by expert witnesses showed that he had rampant damp and mould in his home, to the extent that he was removed and Wheatley was forced to spend five weeks removing the mould.
The second case involves a woman called Michelle Ure, whom I represent and who was recently named in The Herald. South Lanarkshire Council said it was only condensation that she had. The tenant said, “No, I’ve got damp and mould in my cavity wall insulation. It’s in the structure of the home.” The extent of the damp and mould has been such that her two-year-old boy, Leighton, has repeated chest and respiratory infections and, in fact, nearly died a few weeks ago.
Two housing officers and an inspector came to the home late last week and told her, “You’ve got to clear the physical mould. You’ve got to clean it up.” When she said, “Why do I have to clean it? I have severe asthma”, it was demanded of her. We have this on tape, by the way—it will be coming out in the media shortly. They said that she should clean the mould up, even though she is asthmatic. When she asked the person who said this to her, “Are you qualified to deal with damp and mould that you’re telling me about?”, they said, “No, I’m not.”
That is the problem: there is, in Scottish housing, an essential lack of understanding. The Scottish housing sector does not really know too much about damp and mould—there is a wilful ignorance about it.
What we in the Scottish Tenants Organisation are saying is that, because damp and mould are endemic and in hundreds of thousands of homes, we have to introduce a Scottish Awaab’s law. What we are saying is—