Aoife Deery on plans to introduce Awaab’s Law

Thousands of people across Scotland live in cold, damp and mouldy homes.

As part of efforts to tackle this, the Scottish Government recently announced it intends to introduce Awaab’s Law in Scotland, replicating similar rules coming into place in England. This means that there would be new rules and timeframes on landlords in the social rented sector (for example, councils and housing associations) to resolve issues of damp and mould.

Citizens Advice Scotland welcomed this in principle, but we know from our evidence that more needs to be done across the rented sector to ensure that everyone in Scotland can live in safe and secure homes, free from disrepair. 

Damp and mouldy housing is often a consequence of poor energy efficiency, such as inadequate insulation or draught-proofing. This can then cause fuel poverty (paying too much for energy in relation to income), making it a difficult three-pronged problem to tackle. What’s important though is understanding how it impacts people and their homes, and how it can be fixed.  

To get a better sense of how people experienced these problems, we looked at cases reported to us by advisers in Citizens Advice Bureaux across Scotland over the last couple of years. From this we’ve produced a short report, Left in the Cold (available on our website) - with real life examples. These clearly showed the human impacts of poor energy efficiency – from harming people’s health to property damage, poverty and even homelessness. 

One person’s experience which really stayed with us while doing this work is Mary’s (not her real name). Mary lived in her privately rented home for 21 years but had been disconnected from the gas supply for 15 years. Despite trying to heat her home with electric heaters, her flat had become mouldy.

As a result, Mary has had to take prescription medication to treat repeated chest infections. This situation was made more complex because Mary has learning difficulties and struggled to navigate the problems she encountered. It’s astonishing how Mary coped in these circumstances. If she hadn’t come to her local Citizens Advice Bureau, it doesn’t bear imagining what her health would be like now.

We know damp and mould can be stubborn problems to resolve, but we also know solutions are out there. We’re seeing a better response from social landlords, who are working more closely with tenants to find a solution that works for the tenant. However, social landlords also tend to be restricted by a lack of funding, which is leading to many tenants having to wait a very long time for a resolution. 

So, like many other organisations, we agree that enough is enough. We want to see stronger enforcement against private landlords who do not address damp and mould. There can be no excuse for renting out unsafe and unhealthy homes.  A mix of awareness-raising, training and continuation of Scottish Government grants and loans are also all needed to support all tenures to improve energy efficiency.

Awaab’s Law is a step in the right direction, but amidst a housing, climate and child poverty emergency, we must and can do better. 

Aoife Deery is housing spokesperson at Citizens Advice Scotland.

This column was first published in the Herald.