Sheffield Council to pay more than £2m to fix disrepair, damp and mould problems in council houses

The council’s housing policy committee has decided to approve a proposal to “commission a contract for a period of up to two years” to deliver disrepair works and damp and mould remedial works.

These are two separate contract proposals and according to a report, the council is set to pay £1.2m and £1.25m, respectively.

A report published ahead of the meeting said: “The council is currently facing significant volumes of work in disrepair cases and damp/mould on its social housing estate.

“Whilst in-house resources are being increased to ensure sustainability in the future, current in-house and sub-contractor resource in these workstreams is not sufficient to deal with the volume of current work in progress.

“The level of work in progress is therefore not currently reducing.”

At the meeting, Cllr Paul Turpin (Gleadless Valley, The Green Party) asked what solutions will be allowed within the contracts as he said there are so many different things – rising damp, leaks, condensation, just to name a few – which look “all the same if you live in that house”.

“But there are different causes and solutions,” he added.

He was told the plan was to do a range of different interventions in the properties.

The report also said that in 2022 the council had received an average of 22 reports of dampness per day – in 2023 this had risen to 45 cases per day, an increase of 115 per cent.

Also, the number of (new) disrepair cases between 2018 and 2024 has increased from 117 to 821, with 2023 being the worst year with 1,045 new cases.

It added: “Forecast spend figures are based on the future projection of spend based on historical spend data for the type of works being procured and the level of backlog works currently identified.”

The figure will be covered through the Housing Revenue Account (HRA).