THURROCK Council, an authoruty blighted by social housing suffering from damp and mould, will come under huge pressure if it is forced to respond to complaints of mouldy homes within 24 hours, a councillor fears.

Only last week Thurrock Nub nNews highlighted many of the long-running damp and mould problems in the borough.

The council currently responds to damp and mould complaints within five days but a law change will see that reduced to one day.

Speaking at a housing overview and scrutiny committee meeting on Thursday, 11 January, Ewelina Sorbjan, assistant director of housing and development at Thurrock Council, said: "It was announced today the proposal is to have the main emergency items around damp and mould repaired within 24 hours or made safe. The way the main contract is set up it allows for that fluctuation in that essential line of work.

"The writing was on the wall so most contractors are already working to it.

"Over the course of the previous financial year we've actually changed the timescales for attending to damp and mould for example.

"We moved it from 20 days to five days so this is going to be moved once it becomes law to an even shorter period. It's not to repair the whole property but it's absolutely to safeguard residents, make good and attend to it as soon as possible."

However, Cllr Steve Liddiard, Labour councillor for Tilbury St Chads, said he had concerns over existing delays to repairs and pressure on the borough's housing team.

He said: "I found in Tilbury there is quite a lot of damp and mould issues. One in particular they've got water running down the walls. There doesn't seem to be a resolution for it. Shall we put an air brick in or shall we take all the cladding off the bricks?

"It's major stuff and it's £10,000 a house and I see that's being delayed. Where the blockage is I don't know but if this legislation comes in there's going to be a huge pressure to fix it and I wonder whether we need to include this in with our work plans."

In response, Ms Sorbjan said: "It's absolutely right to have that focus. It's definitely difficult out there in terms of the overall asset management because you improve windows and cladding, the original structure of the fabric changes and it needs the adjustment of everything around it to function as intended. It's a big challenge for everyone in housing to get that retrofit going because the properties we've got will stay with us for the next 50 to 100 years."