‘Tackle damp and mould or pay the penalty’, Hackney council has warned local landlords.

This follows approval by the council of a 25 per cent (£400,000) uplift in annual funding for its private sector enforcement team. The extra money is to be focused on expanding its capacity to ensure ‘private landlords meet their duty to tackle damp and mould and provide a good, safe home to their tenants’.

The extra funding was billed as the latest step in the council’s pledge to address damp and mould issues across all housing types in Hackney. It adds to new council plans to tackle damp and mould in its own housing stock, including a five day turnaround to address all reported damp and mould issues and a new next working day repair service to respond to reports of leaks.

The investment, said the council, is also the latest boost for its BetterRenting campaign, ‘which strives for a better system for the more than 30,000 private renters in Hackney by supporting tenants, challenging government and tackling rogue landlords’.