A housing association under fire following the tragic death of two year-old Awaab Ishak today admitted it 'made assumptions about lifestyle' relating to his family and apologised, saying it 'abhors racism in any shape or form'.
Awaab, who lived with his parents in a flat on Rochdale's Freehold estate, died in December 2020, just days after his second birthday, following prolonged exposure to mould and damp. His parents, a coroner said at an inquest into his death, had repeatedly raised their concerns about the state of their home with landlord, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH), but nothing was done.
And as the fall-out over the tragedy continued Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, slammed the association's 'apparent attempts' to 'attribute the existence of mould to the actions of Awaab's parents' as 'beyond insensitive and deeply unprofessional'.
READ MORE: The nasty stench of racism pervades the tragedy of little Awaab Ishak
Speaking after the inquest verdict, Awaab's parents said they had no doubt that 'we were treated this way because we are not from the country and less aware of how the systems in the UK work'.
The inquest heard complaints were made to RBH before Awaab was even born. Workers inspected the family's flat in July and November 2020 and claimed to have seen a 'bucket' in the family's bathroom.
The court heard they saw wetness on the bathroom floor and a saturated bath panel - and assumed the family were using the 'bucket' to carry out 'ritual bathing'. Awaab's father, however, told the court his family took showers and such 'ritual bathing' was not in his family's 'culture'.
In a statement issued today - after chief executive Gareth Swarbrick was sacked on Saturday - RBH said: "We did make assumptions about lifestyle and we accept that we got that wrong. We will be implementing further training across the whole organisation. We abhor racism in any shape or form and we know that we have a responsibility to all our communities."
The statement - published in a long Twitter thread - confirmed the association would now 'significantly accelerate inspection of every single home we visit for damp and mould' and take immediate action where needed.
RBH added: "We want to start by saying again how sorry we are for the loss of Awaab. We know our words will not take away the pain felt by his family, nor will they immediately heal the hurt and the strength of feeling which is justifiably being felt in Rochdale and across the country.
"Our whole organisation, which is made up of caring and passionate colleagues, is completely focussed on putting things right for our customers, the people of Rochdale and the wider community and sector. However, we know that we got things badly wrong.
"As noted by the coroner, we and the wider range of organisations involved across the system of housing, health and social care and government have to learn lessons, take action and rebuild trust. We have started to take action, and our immediate priorities include:
"We will now significantly accelerate inspection of every single home we visit for damp and mould and we will take immediate action where needed. We will bring in an experienced interim external Chief Executive as soon as possible to lead the organisation to effect the changes that are needed.
"We are meeting urgently with our key stakeholders to listen and to respond to their questions. We will share what we have learnt about the impact to health of damp, condensation and mould with the social housing sector, and support sector wide changes.
"We are ready and willing to accelerate work with local and national health and care sector as well as local and national government to implement the wider changes explicitly recommended to them by the coroner. We support the coroner and Housing Ombudsman's call for the government’s Decent Homes Standard to be strengthened to include damp and mould. RBH and all the housing sector must now treat damp as mould as one of our critical housing safety issues."
The M.E.N has teamed up with housing charity, Shelter, to launch a petition calling for Awaab's Law, which as of 1pm on Tuesday - November 22 - more than 85,000 people have signed.
The law would require landlords to investigate the causes of damp and mould within 14 days of complaints being made and provide tenants with a report on the findings.
The Social Housing Regulation Bill is currently going through Parliament and if approved, would bring back regulation on consumer standards for social housing. But our call for Awaab's Law would strengthen it, by including Ofsted-style inspections at short notice and increased professionalisation of housing management to improve the experience of tenants, including those living with damp and mould.
You can sign it here
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