Greenwich Council is facing criticism for alleged delays in addressing damp and mould repairs in residents' homes. While the council's Housing and Neighbourhoods Scrutiny Panel received an update on the responsive repairs service on April 1, 2026, detailing significant improvements and a reduction in outstanding repairs, specific targets for damp and mould issues appear to have been missed.
The panel was informed that while damp surveys are being completed within 9 days, meeting the 10-day key performance indicator (KPI), mould washes are being attended to within an average of 7.7 days, exceeding the 5-day target by 2.7 days. The report noted that the increase in requests for damp and mould washes between January and February 2026, due to weather and ongoing stock condition surveys, pushed response times beyond the KPI target. The service is incorporating further hazard categories into daily repairs work and managing referrals from stock condition surveys to address the root causes of this increase.
Despite these challenges, the council highlighted a substantial decrease in the overall number of outstanding repairs, from 11,800 in March 2023 to 3,095 currently. The average time taken for an in-house repair is just under 11 working days.
The report also detailed a transformation programme aimed at modernising the repairs service. A 'Members Repairs Transformation Board' has been created to monitor the progress of this programme and scrutinise updates on the repairs service. As part of this transformation, improvements have been made to human resources, with a dedicated HR Business Partner on-site leading to better team management and a reduction in long-term sickness. The service is also working on improving its follow-on repair process, with increased focus on booking second visits while operatives are still in residents' homes.
Furthermore, the transformation team has built and consolidated data dashboards for damp, mould, condensation, performance, gas & electric, and voids. These dashboards are designed to 'put data in the hands of the service to drive decisions, track compliance, improve performance, and identify efficiency opportunities'. The award-winning DMC team, for instance, uses its dashboard to track compliance and consistently meet timescales that exceed the standards set out in Awaab's law.
The council's strategy for ensuring the transformation programme effectively addresses ongoing damp and mould issues is underpinned by the continuous monitoring by the Members Repairs Transformation Board and the proactive use of data dashboards to identify and address issues. This approach aims to move beyond reactive measures and ensure compliance with established standards, as exemplified by the DMC team's performance.
More information on the repairs service update can be found in the 'Repairs update' document 6.0 Repairs update.pdf.
