The Costs of Damp and Mould in the UK

BRE (the UK’s Building Research Establishment) has recently published a report on the costs of poor housing to the UK health sector.

According to the report, the largest poor-housing-related cost burden to the NHS is ill-heath caused by cold. This is experienced by people living in very energy inefficient homes, which are prone to damp and mould problems.

BRE’s research shows that the proportion of people suffering from excessively cold houses differs sharply across the owner-occupied, privately rented and social housing sectors.

Percentage of homes with Category 1 excessive cold hazard

Owner occupied: 3.3%

Private rented: 3.8%

Social rented: 0.6%

It also shows that, were damp and mould problems caused by excessive cold mitigated straight away, the NHS would recoup the money expended in varying period of time.

Owner occupied: 4.5 years (£31, 323, 796 in total)

Private rented: 11.89 years (£203, 035, 223 in total)

Social rented: 1.89 years (£18 481 721 in total)

The good news here is that mitigating damp and mould problems within the social housing sector is within our grasp. Doing so would be comparatively cheap achieve, and the social payback time is very short. BRE’s report also suggests that the picture within the social housing sector is not as bleak as it sometimes appears.

The bad news is that the privately rented sector has many more problems with damp and mould. These problems would cost far more to mitigate, and it would take far longer for the for the investment to be returned.

Presumably the political will will be harder to muster too.