The Housing Ombudsman

The Housing Ombudsman on Tackling Damp, Mould, and the Future of Social Housing

The issue of damp and mould in social housing has moved from a hidden problem to a national headline, tragically underscored by the death of Awaab Ishak. It has forced a reckoning within the housing sector, prompting difficult questions about responsibility, building standards, and the fundamental relationship between landlords and residents. At the heart of this conversation is the Housing Ombudsman , an organisation tasked with providing fairness and redress when that relationship breaks down.

In a recent episode of the Air Quality Matters podcast, I had the privilege of sitting down with Richard Blakeway , the Housing Ombudsman for England. With extensive experience in public policy and housing, Richard has been a pivotal voice advocating for a zero-tolerance approach to damp and mould. Our discussion moved beyond the headlines to explore the deep, systemic challenges at play, the human cost of poor housing, and what the path forward might look like.

An Advocate for Fairness in a System of Imbalance

What is an ombudsman, and why is their role so critical? Richard describes the position simply as an "advocate for fairness," a free-to-access alternative to the courts designed to level the playing field. In a sector where tenants often feel they have limited choice and a diminished voice, the Ombudsman serves to address this imbalance of power.

However, the conversation revealed that the role is far more than just dispute resolution. We discussed the three core functions of the service: independent investigation, raising local complaint handling standards, and, crucially, learning from casework to prevent future issues. This preventative aspect is key. By identifying patterns across hundreds of monthly cases, the Ombudsman’s office is uniquely positioned to see where the system is failing—not just for one resident, but for many. Hearing Richard explain how individual complaints can act as an early warning signal for broader organisational and policy failures provides a powerful context for understanding the sector's current challenges.

The Human Cost: Moving Beyond Transactional Communication

One of the most powerful themes of our discussion was the profound human impact of poor housing. A thread running through the Ombudsman’s casework is the distress, disruption, and anxiety felt by residents living in unacceptable conditions. I was struck by a quote from one of Richard’s early spotlight reports: "Whether or not we uphold their complaint, this experience is real and it's profound."

In the episode, Richard expands on this, highlighting the "absence of empathy" that can exist in landlord responses. He argues that communication should not be merely transactional—judged only by the speed of an email reply. The tone, the empathy, and the culture behind that communication are what truly matter. When a family is living with mould, a tone-deaf or dismissive response can compound their anxiety and make them feel gaslit. This part of our conversation underscores a vital point: the quality of our homes is inextricably linked to health, well-being, and life aspirations, and the culture of housing providers is as important as their processes.

A Counterintuitive Catalyst: Why the Spotlight on Damp and Mould?

Perhaps the most intriguing insight was the origin of the Ombudsman’s first major report on damp and mould. The natural assumption is that it was prompted by a flood of complaints. The reality was the opposite. Richard explained that the investigation began because they felt they weren't seeing enough cases relative to other data on poor housing conditions.

This suggested the problem was systemic, underreported, and often unfairly dismissed by blaming residents' lifestyles. This deliberate decision to investigate a "canary in the coal mine" marked a significant shift, moving the conversation away from individual tenant behaviour and toward landlord responsibility and building failures. In the full episode, we explore how this shift has reshaped attitudes in the sector, leading to a welcome decline in the "tenant blaming" culture, even as issues with delivery and delays persist.

Awaab’s Law and the Risk of Firefighting

Looking ahead, we discussed the implementation of Awaab’s Law and the reform of the Decent Homes Standard. While these regulatory changes are welcome and long overdue, our conversation raised a critical question: is there a risk they will encourage short-term, reactive firefighting rather than addressing the root causes of building failure?

With immense pressure on landlords to meet strict new timelines, the danger is that resources may be diverted to quick fixes—like mould washes—instead of fundamental investments in things like ventilation, insulation, and deep retrofits. We touch on the necessity of better data, more robust stock condition surveys, and a cultural shift towards understanding the performance of building systems, not just their presence.

One Take Quick Dive: Are Our Indoor Comfort Standards Actually Unhealthy?

In a complementary One Take episode, we dissect a thought-provoking paper from Professor Philomena Bluyssen of Delft University of Technology that challenges the very foundation of how we regulate our indoor environments.

The paper’s core argument is a gauntlet thrown down to the industry: even when our buildings comply with all current standards for temperature, air quality, and noise, our sedentary indoor lives may still be detrimental to our long-term health. Professor Blyson argues that our guidelines, built on a "single dose-response" model, are fundamentally flawed. They aim to prevent short-term discomfort for a hypothetical "average person" but fail to promote long-term well-being.

The podcast explores this compelling idea, highlighting a brilliant example: our pursuit of thermal neutrality may be contributing to obesity by preventing our bodies from ever being challenged to regulate their own temperature. The episode unpacks the paper's call to move beyond this simplistic model towards "situation modelling"—a holistic approach that considers the complex interaction of environmental stressors, the activity being performed, and the diverse needs of actual individuals. This brief but powerful episode will make you question the very definition of a "good" indoor environment and what we should be aiming for in the future.

The need to go beyond the comfort-based dose-related indicators in ourIEQ-guidelines

The Air Quality Matters Podcast in Partnership with

Zehnder Group - Farmwood - Eurovent- Aico - Aereco - Ultra Protect -

The One Take Podcast in Partnership with

SafeTraces and Inbiot

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