A 52-year-old council tenant in Mansfield died of lung disease that doctors believe may have been caused by her mouldy home.
Jane Bennett lived in a house provided by Mansfield district council from October 2022 until she was admitted to intensive care in May 2023 with respiratory failure. She was treated with antifungals and antibiotics, but died at King’s Mill hospital on 8 June this year.
The case comes a year after a coroner ruled that Awaab Ishak, who was two, died from the effects of mould in a social housing flat in Rochdale and after Michael Gove, the housing secretary, said “such tragedies should never happen again”.
Bennett had previously identified severe mould in her council home and the pathologist who carried out a postmortem examination and the respiratory consultant were “clear that the mould may be causal or contributory to her death”, said Neema Sharma, the coroner for Nottingham city and Nottinghamshire.
Sharma has taken the unusual step of issuing a warning that there was a “risk that future deaths could occur unless action is taken” before the inquest and ordered inspections of council housing in the area.
There has been a national outcry at the extent of mould and damp in rented housing. In September Gove told social landlords: “It is all our responsibilities to work together to improve standards in the rented sector.”
He said that “damp and mould should not be dismissed as a ‘lifestyle choice’” and that “action to remove pervasive damp and mould must be taken”.
Mansfield district council has about 6,500 council homes and must respond to the coroner by 19 January setting out details of action taken and proposed along with a timetable. It declined to say what if any action it is taking.
“Given that this is an ongoing matter and out of respect for the deceased and their family, we do not feel it is appropriate to respond at the moment,” said Jill Finnesey, head of housing. “We are, of course, liaising directly with the coroner.”
The coroner has told Finnesey: “I am concerned that mould in Mrs Bennett’s property and other properties in that area owned and maintained by Mansfield district council may pose a risk that future deaths could occur. I ask for the aforesaid properties to be inspected for mould and action be taken to ensure any further exposure to mould by any tenant is minimised.”
She concluded: “In my opinion action should be taken to prevent future deaths and I believe you and/or your organisation have the power to take such action.”
Bennett was diagnosed with interstitial pneumonitis in April and then had frequent admissions to hospital through to May with worsening health. She was admitted to intensive care twice and the second time was treated with high flow nasal oxygen, intravenous steroids, antifungals and antibiotics.
Last month the father of Awaab Ishak, Faisal Abdullah, 31, pleaded with tenants to “waste no time” in complaining about mould and to simply “get out” if they find themselves exposed to similar problems.
He also said the government should introduce strict deadlines for landlords to tackle mould in the private rented sector as well as in social housing – an extension of “Awaab’s law”, which is due to come into effect for social housing.
The housing ombudsman, which pursues tenant complaints about social housing landlords, found maladministration in 2,430 cases in 2022-23 – an increase of 40% on the previous year. Almost a third of these findings related to the condition of properties. Meanwhile, after years of improvement, the number of “non-decent” social housing units increased to around one in 10 in the last year for which data is available from the English Housing Survey.
