Thompsons Solicitors said it has 41 clients with illnesses exacerbated by damp conditions in social housing.

Wheatley Group, which is involved in many of the cases, said that 98.5% of mould complaints were addressed within two weeks.

Solicitor Claire Campbell, a partner at Thompsons, who specialises in industrial cases involving lung damage told BBC Scotland News: “Clients are developing lung diseases or if they already suffer from a lung disease like asthma, that’s been exacerbated by their living conditions.

“Children are particularly at risk. Obviously, a lot of children already have asthma or suffer from chest infections.

“We’ve seen cases where people have also developed skin problems and allergies - there are a number of different conditions that we see.”

She added that the aim of the firm was to bring cases together where possible.

“We are looking into them initially individually,” she said.

“But we are really pursuing investigating the prospect of a group or class action, particularly where there is more than one person in the same estate or street affected.

“I think we have good prospects of doing that because as I say, there are a lot of claims specifically against Wheatley Group or Glasgow Housing Association (now Wheatley Homes Glasgow).

“There is a definite basis for a class action against that housing association.”

A Wheatley spokesperson said it dealt with an initial mould complaint in 2019, adding: “Other incidences of mould in her previous property were during Covid times when Scottish government guidelines stopped us getting into homes to carry out repairs.

“As soon as we could get in, we fixed these issues.”

Other housing providers being pursued by Thompsons include Fife, Highland and Aberdeenshire councils and Scottish Borders Housing Association.

Fife Council stated it “adopts a robust inspection and support approach for council tenants experiencing dampness”, while Aberdeenshire said aims to resolve mould issues within three months.

Scottish Borders HA said it has not been contacted by Thompsons but said it takes “several steps to prevent, diagnose and resolve damp and mould in tenants’ homes”.

Highland Council declined to comment.