England’s housing ombudsman Richard Blakeley has raised concerns about dangerous levels of lead found in properties.
Some older homes have lead paint, which creates poisonous dust that can be ingested as it rubs off. Meanwhile lead piping remains a concern despite being outlawed in 1970.
This follows a Financial Times investigation, which found that there is a lack of routine testing, meaning children could be exposed to lead poisoning.
Blakeley told the FT: “We know it’s a hazard and what [the FT has] highlighted are the flaws in testing, so it would be sensible to do a pilot study to test and sample properties.
“Lead has the same relevance of all the other hazards and it’s potentially being missed.”
He added: “When we’ve looked at landlords’ policies and processes, hazards can be absent. Too often checks are only carried out after a health issue is reported.
“Certainly the experience we had with damp and mould is that there was a low awareness, or it wasn’t being taken seriously enough, so we were seeing few cases.
“That’s changed because awareness has changed.”
Experts have called for the Renters’ Rights Bill to be amended so home surveys have to have lead hazards and risk assessments included.
The Housing Ombudsman Service is a public body sponsored by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) since 2019.