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Cam Maloney
Damp and mould are among the most pressing challenges facing social housing providers in England. Since Awaab's Law came into force, housing associations and local authority landlords have had to investigate and act on damp and mould hazards within strict, legally enforceable timeframes. Cleaning mould off a wall is no longer enough on its own.
The most effective response is to tackle the cause: condensation. In this post, we explain how condensation forms, how infrared heating combined with smart humidity monitoring helps prevent it, and what we learned from a real installation in a 1960s former council flat in Battersea.
What Is Awaab's Law and What Does It Mean for Social Landlords?
Why the law was introduced
Awaab's Law is named after two-year-old Awaab Ishak, who died in Rochdale in 2020 after prolonged exposure to mould in his family's social housing flat. His death exposed how complaints about damp and mould can go unresolved, and prompted new legal duties for social landlords in England.
The timeframes landlords must meet
The first phase of Awaab's Law came into force on 27 October 2025, covering emergency hazards and significant damp and mould hazards, with further hazards being phased in afterwards. In summary, landlords must:
Investigate and make safe emergency hazards within 24 hours
Investigate significant hazards within 10 working days
Give tenants a written summary of the findings within 3 working days of the investigation
Begin any necessary safety work within 5 working days of the investigation
The detail matters, so landlords should always check the latest government guidance for the current requirements.
Why repeat complaints are the real challenge
For many housing associations, the biggest operational problem is not the first complaint, it is the repeat complaint. If mould is washed off but the conditions that caused it remain, it tends to return. Each return can trigger another investigation, another written summary and another round of works. Preventing condensation in the first place is the most reliable way to break that cycle.
Why Condensation Causes Damp and Mould in Social Housing
Cold surfaces and the dew point
Condensation happens when warm, moisture-laden air meets a surface that is colder than the air's dew point. The air cools, can no longer hold as much water vapour, and releases it as droplets. Over time, those damp surfaces become the perfect place for mould to grow.
Everyday life adds a lot of moisture to the air. Cooking, bathing, breathing and drying clothes indoors all raise humidity, and the effect is greatest in the colder months, when windows and external walls are at their coldest.
Why heating alone does not always solve it
A home can be heated and still suffer from condensation. Conventional convection heating mainly warms the air in a room. Walls, window glass, corners and floors can stay cold, which means they remain the exact places where moisture collects. Tenants who limit their heating to manage energy costs are particularly exposed.
Why older housing stock is especially vulnerable
Much of the UK's social housing was built decades ago, often with limited insulation, large windows and cold bridging at junctions between walls, floors and ceilings. These features create cold surfaces that are prone to condensation even in homes that are being heated. It is a building-fabric issue, not a lifestyle one.
How Infrared Heating Helps Prevent Condensation
Warming surfaces, not just air
Infrared heating panels emit radiant heat. Rather than mainly heating the air, they warm the surfaces they face: walls, floors, windows and furnishings. Those warmed surfaces then hold and release heat back into the room.
Because condensation only forms on surfaces that are colder than the surrounding air's dew point, warming those surfaces removes the cold spots where moisture would otherwise collect. That is why radiant heat is well suited to tackling condensation, improving comfort and supporting better indoor air quality.
A quieter, simpler heating system
Infrared panels run on electricity, need no pipework or boiler and have no moving parts, so installation is straightforward and minimally disruptive for tenants. Panels are also controlled room by room, so heat can be targeted at the rooms where moisture is a problem.
Smart Humidity Monitoring With SALUS Controls
Infrared Group offers a smart thermostat system through our partner SALUS. Each smart thermostat measures the humidity of the air in its room as well as the temperature, which allows the heating to respond automatically to moisture, not just to cold.
How the automated humidity response works
In our installations, the system can be set up like this:
The SALUS thermostat continuously monitors the relative humidity of the room's air.
If humidity rises above 65%, the automated response triggers.
The infrared panels in that room switch on, warming walls, windows and other surfaces and helping to prevent condensation.
The thermostat keeps reading humidity while the panels run.
Once humidity drops below 60%, a safer level, the panels switch off automatically.
The result is a heating system that reacts to the conditions that cause damp, and only uses energy when it is needed. The system also offers full mobile app control, so settings can be managed remotely.
Why this matters for social housing
Reducing reliance on tenant behaviour
Awaab's Law and the coroner's findings in the Awaab Ishak case made clear that telling tenants to change their lifestyle is not an acceptable response to damp and mould. A system that responds to rising humidity automatically does not depend on tenants noticing the problem and adjusting their heating by hand.
Protecting vulnerable households
Children, older residents and people with respiratory conditions are most at risk from damp and mould. Automated humidity control gives these households an extra layer of protection, particularly in homes where moisture levels can change quickly.
Supporting compliance records
Installation details, humidity settings and follow-up checks create a clear record of the preventative action a landlord has taken. That documentation is valuable when demonstrating a proactive approach to damp and mould prevention.
Case Study: A 1960s Former Council Flat in Battersea
To show how this works in practice, here is a summary of an installation we completed in a two-bedroom flat in Battersea, built in the 1960s. The flat was originally owned by the local authority and is now owner-occupied. It is not social housing today, but its age, construction and moisture problems are typical of the homes that housing associations and councils manage.
The problem
The resident had experienced ongoing damp and condensation since moving in during 2014. She regularly cleaned mould from the windows and window sills, mould built up in the corners of rooms, and moisture sometimes ran down the walls. The bathroom extractor fan struggled to stop mould forming on the small window and surrounding tiles. In winter she had stopped drying clothes indoors because of the mould it caused.
We measured humidity in the living room at regularly above 70%, reaching 72% while clothes were drying indoors. The living room also has large windows spanning almost from ceiling to floor. They were poorly insulated, frequently cold to the touch and a major source of heat loss, which meant warm air was condensing on the glass.
The installation
We installed six infrared panels, 4,100W in total, controlled by SALUS smart thermostats with mobile app control:
Living room: 1 x 900W, mounted high on the wall
Master bedroom: 1 x 900W, mounted low on the wall at radiator height, replacing former electric radiator
Kitchen: 1 x 700W, specified with an allowance for heat from cooking appliances
Second bedroom: 1 x 700W, mounted low on the wall at radiator height, replacing former electric radiator
Bathroom: 1 x 450W
Hallway: 1 x 450W, mounted low on the wall at radiator height, replacing former electric radiator
We tested the automated humidity function in the property, with the panels switching on in the affected rooms when humidity rose above 65% and off again once it fell below 60%.
The results
After the installation, the resident reported noticeably fewer droplets of condensation on the windows. No mould has built up in the bathroom since it was last cleaned following the installation, and the bathroom wall tiles are no longer cold to the touch. She also described the air as less stuffy, easier to breathe and more comfortable.
We also measured base level humidity. For this test, we overrode the 60% humidity level at which the panels normally switch off, so that all of the panels ran continuously for 60 minutes and we could see how low humidity would drop. With the infrared heating on in all rooms for 60 minutes, the readings were:
Living room: 53%
Bedrooms: 54%
Kitchen: 55%
Bathroom: 57%
Every room was below the 60% level at which the panels would normally switch off, compared with living room readings regularly above 70% before the installation. These readings were taken under different conditions, so they are not a controlled before-and-after comparison.
These are one resident's observations from a single property, and results will vary with a home's insulation, ventilation and occupancy. Even so, the installation shows how warming the building fabric, with heating that responds to humidity, can address the conditions that cause condensation.
Practical Considerations for Housing Associations
If you are considering infrared heating as part of your damp and mould strategy, these steps are a sensible starting point:
Survey first. Identify the properties and rooms at greatest risk, such as those with solid walls, large windows, north-facing aspects or a history of complaints.
Measure humidity. Record humidity before and after any installation so you have evidence of what changed.
Keep ventilation in the picture. Infrared heating works best alongside appropriate ventilation and, where possible, insulation improvements.
Start with a pilot. A small number of high-risk homes can show how the system performs in your stock before you roll it out more widely.
Talk to Infrared Group About Damp and Mould Prevention
Infrared Group supplies and installs infrared heating with SALUS smart controls for housing associations, local authorities, social landlords and homeowners. If you would like to discuss a property survey or a pilot installation, get in touch with our team or explore our range of infrared heating panels. You can also learn more about the technology on our What Is Infrared Heating page.
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