July 2024

In April, we submitted a petition signed by 168 of our neighbours, demanding decisive action on the widespread damp and mould issues in the Tulse Hill Estate. Our petition to Lambeth Council's cabinet member for Housing and Homelessness included the following requests: 

1. Commission an independent environmental inspection of the Tulse Hill Estate blocks to identify structural issues. 

2. Develop an estate improvement plan based on the inspection findings to rectify the identified structural problems. 

3. Appoint a single point of contact for residents—someone of sufficient seniority to be responsible and accountable to residents for the plan's implementation. 

At the time of our petition, Cllr. Maria Kay held this position. Given that ours was one of the largest estate-based petitions in the Brixton Rush Common ward, we expected a timely and serious response. Unfortunately, this was not the case. The council missed their deadline to respond by two full weeks, and after we followed up, we learned that Cllr. Maria Kay had moved on, with Cllr. Danny Adilypour taking her place during this year's Lambeth Council AGM. 

Despite the delay, Danny's response did not address any of our reasonable and specific petition requests. Instead, he detailed the council’s ongoing work, which seemed to ignore our concerns. We made it clear in our reply that, given the widespread dissatisfaction among neighbours regarding Lambeth's handling of the damp and mould issues, we expect and need more concrete steps, transparency, and accountability to ensure the necessary works are both identified and completed. 

What he has offered so far suggests that he wants us to just trust him to get on with the job. After decades of neglect, would you? 

We feel this response falls significantly short of our expectations, and we will be following up with Danny to secure the actual information we requested in our petition along with far more concrete next steps with accountability.