Addressing mould growth problems in UK housing

Researchers at Leeds Beckett are working to address mould growth problems in UK housing to improve housing safety.

Following the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak in 2020, Awaab’s Law was launched, which requires social housing landlords to quickly investigate and fix hazardous conditions like mould in homes.

Now, researchers from Construction Informatics and Digital Enterprise Laboratory (CIDEL) within the School of Built Environment, Engineering and Computing at Leeds Beckett University are working with BuildEco Ltd to develop an advanced diagnostic web-based platform that uses AI to assess and optimise existing building designs to tackle the issue.

The platform examines existing buildings to identify areas prone to dampness and mould growth, proposes plans to solve this and optimises retrofit designs to reduce mould risks and improve building safety and integrity.

The research is part of £7million funding from the UK Research and Innovation Technology Missions Fund, which is delivered by the Innovate UK BridgeAI programme.

Dr Jamiu A Dauda, senior lecturer, who is leading the research at Leeds Beckett University, said: “Unlocking AI’s potential to analyse vast building performance data is key to tackling damp and mould issues in UK housing. The AI-DOMP project addresses this by providing an AI-enabled diagnostic platform to assess mould risks in houses, equipping the sector with AI-driven solutions for better decision-making.”

Audley English MBE, Director of BuildEco Ltd said:

“With over £6million in fines issued to landlords over damp and mould, the Housing Ombudsman is driving accountability and the AI-DOMP platform offers a cutting-edge AI-enabled tool that will help landlords proactively assess mould risks, ensuring better maintenance of housing stock.”

Esra Kasapoglu, Director of AI and Data Economy at Innovate UK said:

“The adoption of AI in UK industry is fundamental to supporting the country’s economic growth.

“This investment will enable us, through BridgeAI, to help more companies to unlock the potential of AI in their business.

“It will also allow further development of projects already demonstrating impact to continue their AI journey.”