Homes with black mould, damp and rot excluded from help

Homeowners who say their houses are being destroyed by unsuitable insulation fitted under a government scheme say action announced to fix it won’t help them – as the work was carried out too long ago.

The government found a “serious systemic” issue in homes fitted with insulation under two of its own schemes since 2022 – and ordered installers to put it right.

But that won’t include 93-year-old Margaret Chappell whose work was done in 2021 and now her house is consumed by damp, black mould and crumbling plaster.

The government said it would keep other schemes under review but Mrs Chappell said she and other residents were being ”ignored”.

“It’s as if we don’t exist. It’s appalling,” added Mrs Chappell, who has lived in her home in County Durham for 60 years.

She and 153 of her neighbours in the town of Chilton had solid wall insulation fitted after Durham County Council advised them to take advantage of a free government scheme.

They were told the work would help make their homes warmer and lower their energy bills. But Mrs Chappell, who suffers from chronic asthma, said that since then, damp has consumed her living room.

Her wallpaper has peeled off and the plaster behind it is saturated and crumbling.

“I don’t want to be sitting here, breathing in this dust,” she said.

More than three million homes in the UK have had insulation fitted under government schemes including 260,000 properties which have had solid wall insulation.

In October, the BBC told the story of 84-year-old Tormuja Khatun from Luton whose house with unsuitable solid wall insulation had mushrooms growing on the walls and dry rot feeding off the floor joists.

Since then the house became so dangerous to live in she had to move out. Her family has been warned it will cost more than £100,000 to fix.

Ms Khatun’s insulation was fitted in 2022 so in theory should be covered by the government’s promise of help – but they still don’t know when the work will start and who will pick up the bill.

Not long after this BBC report, the government ordered an audit by the independent organisation Trustmark of more than 1,000 properties that have had solid wall insulation. It found that in half of the homes audited the work had not been done to the required standard.

The Minister for Energy Consumers, Miatta Fahnbulleh MP, told Parliament last month that the audit had found ”serious systemic” problems. She said installers would be required to fix and pay for any problems.

The energy regulator Ofgem is now trying to establish how widespread the problems are and has written to 65,000 households that have had solid wall insulation since 2022 under the government’s ECO4 and GBIS schemes.

But because the homes in Chilton were done under a different government programme, called the Local Authority Delivery Scheme, there is currently no plan to contact residents.

The government said it was ”currently confident the quality of works under the Local Authority Delivery scheme was high” but it would keep the situation under review.

Building surveyor, David Walter, has been inspecting insulated properties for 25 years. He assessed the damage at several of the homes in Chilton and said ”poor design and poor workmanship” had led to rain penetration which was causing the damp and mould.

In Mr Walter’s view the properties were unsuitable for solid wall insulation and said it would have to be removed from all of the properties. He warned this could cost tens of thousands of pounds per home to fix.

He said the cost “could actually exceed the market value” of each house and added ”it just demonstrates what a catastrophic scheme it’s been.”

Susan Haslam said she has been fighting to get the damage repaired to her late parents’, Bob and Maureen’s Chilton home ever since they died three years ago.

She said her father worried about the damp as he cared for her mother, who had dementia.

She said the stress had prevented her family from being able to grieve properly for their parents, who saw the house “as part of their legacy,” after working for decades.

“We don’t want to let them down, we want it to be sorted for them and for us,” she said. “Somebody is responsible and they need to act.”

The company hired by Durham County Council to do the work on Mrs Chappell’s house, Tolent, went bust before the installations were completed.

Tolent sub-contracted the work to another firm, Westdale North Ltd, which says it is “still on site, and working on issues that have arisen.”

It added that it was doing the work “as a goodwill gesture although it may not legally be required to do so” adding “the care and consideration we have for residents is a core part of our service.”

The company said the work had been signed off by the Council and Tolent before it went bust, adding: “Some issues that were raised with Tolent were not communicated to us, due to them no longer being in business.”

Durham County Council’s head of planning and housing, Michael Kelleher said it had been “a complex situation, with the collapse of Tolent causing delays outside of our control and we understand residents’ frustrations.”

Mr Kelleher said the council has set up an email address for concerned residents, arranged for inspections to take place at affected properties and provided Westdale North with a list of issues raised by residents.

“Westdale North has carried out extensive work to resolve the issues and we will continue to liaise with them to ensure any outstanding problems are rectified,” he added.