On Wednesday 19 May, ITV News broadcast a story featuring one of our customers, Terrie Pring, and her experiences of damp and mould in her flat. Paul Coates, Bromford’s executive director of transformation and compliance, was interviewed by ITV as part of their story. This is his full response.

Paul said: “No family should have to live in conditions that affect their health, and we are genuinely sorry to Terrie and her family for not acting sooner. I spoke to her on Tuesday 4 May to apologise and on Friday 7 May I visited the property along with one of our surveyors to carry out a technical inspection and agree a way forward. While there are no structural issues with the building, there are a number of repairs that need carrying out and we will also be removing the mould, redecorating, and supporting Ms Pring with any lifestyle factors into the future.

“Over the past year we’ve invested more than £28m in maintaining and improving our existing homes. We know that over the past year our customers have spent more time at home due to the pandemic which can exacerbate issues around damp and condensation. We commit to spending even more to target damp and condensation in our homes to prevent similar situations happening in the future.

“ITV News and Ms Pring have shone an important light on the nature of this country’s housing crisis. As well as needing to build more new homes of all tenures, we also need to upgrade, improve, and in some cases replace the UK’s housing stock. Bromford is committed to playing its part and by 2030 every one of our 45,000 homes will have a minimum SAP C energy rating. We’re expanding our regeneration programme, so that where we do have clusters of older properties we can invest in our communities and replace poorer performing properties with modern, energy, efficient homes. And we’re also continuing to build more new homes. Despite the impact of the pandemic, last year we completed 902 properties and as one of Homes England’s strategic partners we aim to develop 11,000 new homes across the West Midlands and West of England by 2029.”

If you have any concerns about damp and mould in your home, please visit our dedicated hub of information.