BBC’s Panorama show this week investigated the condition of rented properties in the UK.
The government says that in England alone the health of two million people is under threat from mould. After two-year-old Awaab Ishak died from prolonged exposure to mould in 2020, a new law was proposed to protect tenants. Despite being passed by the previous government in 2023, the law will not come into force until the autumn.
Reporter Rahil Sheikh spoke to families living with black mould in both social housing and private rented properties, and revealed how the home of one elderly couple, who say that damp and mould is impacting their health, is owned by one of Britain’s wealthiest landlords, and managed by Savills.
The couple showed a BBC reporter around her privately-rented home in Maltby, Rotherham, where there are visible issues with damp in every room.
“I’m sick of seeing it like this. My house has never been like this. When I was younger and working I could do it [repair the house] myself,” she explained. “We just can’t do it now.”
The couple say they first told their managing agent, Savills, about the problems in 2022.
Savills says it authorised work for the house, including having the roof resurfaced in 2023 – but water is still getting in, including from the adjoining property, and many other problems remain.
According to BBC Panorama, the property is owned by Area Estates, part of the William Pears Group.
Area Estates told the BBC that it had authorised professional managing agents “to look after the property in accordance with all regulations”, and to “carry out day-to-day maintenance”, and that requests for more expensive repairs were always responded to quickly.
“The managing agents will reinspect the house shortly and attend to any repair issues found which are the landlord’s responsibility,” it added.
Managing agent Savills said it was “very sorry to learn that Mrs Brown believes that complaints have been in any way ignored”. It said it had always attempted to address any problems in a timely manner – and had completed 13 different inspection and repair works at the property between 2023 and 2024.
Since Area Estates was contacted, Savills has arranged for new windows to be fitted and the house to be redecorated. The agency told the BBC that all remedial works have now been completed with the “exception of an outstanding matter regarding a ‘lean to’ building, erected by the tenant, to which further works may be required to make it water tight”.
Panorama asked every local authority in England and Wales for the number of complaints they had received about housing issues and what enforcement action they had taken. In the past seven years, there were more than 570,000 complaints (from 255 council responses, after 317 requests) about privately rented homes.
In more than 90% of cases, no action was taken and fewer than 1% of complaints resulted in a landlord being prosecuted.
Councils are facing significant ongoing and historic challenges with resourcing, says the Local Government Association that speaks for authorities in England and Wales. “Issues may be resolved without the need for inspection, with enforcement and prosecution being a last resort when all other options fail,” it adds.
Over the past 10 years, council funding in England has gone down by 10% in real terms, according to the National Audit Office.
“There is a perfect storm now happening, some of which is around really stretched funding, some of which is around the age of homes,” England’s Housing Ombudsman Richard Blakeway said.
In England alone, more than three million households are estimated to be living in properties that do not meet the government’s decent homes standard, according to a government survey.
