MPs have demanded major change in the standards of social housing after the death in Rochdale of two-year-old Awaab Ishak - and spoke out in support of a campaign by the Manchester Evening News for a new law in the two-year-old's memory to ensure a tragedy like it never happens again.
Labour's Lisa Nandy, the Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, called for an urgent Government investigation into the treatment of refugees in the housing system and urged Michael Gove to investigate 'the role that racism may have played in the treatment of Awaab and his family'.
The comments come as the Manchester Evening News launches a campaign for a change in the law that would compel housing associations not to allow any other child, or anyone else, to suffer in damp and mouldy social housing.
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The Social Housing Regulation Bill is currently going through Parliament, and if approved, would bring back regulation on consumer standards for social housing. We are calling on all MPs and peers to support the Bill and 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 - 'Awaab's Law'.
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Graham Stringer, the Labour MP for Blackley and Broughton, backed our campaign and hit out at the living conditions the family endured. He said "I support the Manchester Evening News’ campaign. Housing standards need improving and enforcing. Nobody in this country should have to live in the housing conditions that Awaab Ishak and his family suffered."
Joining her fellow borough MP in backing the M.E.N's campaign, Rebecca Long-Bailey, MP for Salford and Eccles said: “Awaab’s death should bring great anger to us all in this country. No one should ever be forced to live in the housing conditions he faced and there must now be a moment of reckoning which sees the rapid strengthening of housing regulation and tenants rights along with the instigation of a national decent homes mission that sees the rapid deployment of government funding to build new homes and to bring existing ones to a decent standard.
"I fully support the campaign for ‘Awaabs law’."
Jim McMahon, Labour MP for Oldham West and Royton, also backed the M.E.N.'s campaign and said: "The implications of this tragic case are nationwide. Housing providers, private and social, need to do more to ensure that tenants are kept safe. The case of Awaab Ishak is heart-breaking and should have been prevented. No one should have to live in a house that puts their health at risk."
Mike Kane, Labour MP for Wythenshawe and Sale East has also put his name to the campaign, he said: "First and foremost I would like to extend my condolences to the family and to all those who knew and loved Awaab Ishak. The death of a toddler in every case is tragic, but to hear that this child’s death was caused by the conditions that Awaab and his family lived in should be a source of shame for all involved.
"There are many families across this country, just like Awaab’s, living in damp and mouldy homes. I cannot be alone in asking how does this happen?
"How in the UK in 2020 does a two-year-old child die from mould in his home? The inquest clearly showed that this issue is widespread and not just in the socially rented sector either.
"My mailbox is full of cases from people who live in substandard, poorly-insulated, poorly ventilated, expensive-to-heat homes. The housing system is creaking under the strain of years of under-investment and a lack of the building of affordable and secure housing.
"Many tenants wait months for assessments and for repairs and this is not good enough. Tenants must feel confident that when they report unsafe conditions they will not be evicted.
"Abolishing section 21 would help with this, as would registration of landlords and minimum standards being committed to law which would give councils stronger powers to act with rogue landlords. We must ensure a tragedy like the death of Awaab Ishak does not happen again.”
In a letter to Mr Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Wigan MP Ms Nandy said it was 'beyond unacceptable' that the Government 'has not given a timetable for introducing a decent homes standard fit for the 21st century'. The reality, added Ms Nandy, for 'too many tenants' was 'substandard accommodation and requests for help repeatedly ignored'.
"I am therefore asking you to commit to introducing a decent homes standard without delay to ensure tenants have greater rights and security in their own homes and writing into law the requirement that all homes are fit for human habitation," she wrote.
Ms Nandy went on to say Awaab died 'in appalling circumstances after being subjected to damp and mould in his home over the course of his short life'.
A coroner ruled Awaab - a toddler 'full of life and laughter' - died after prolonged exposure to damp and mould at the flat where he lived with his family on Rochdale's Freehold estate. Joanne Kearsley said his death should be a 'defining moment' for the housing sector in how it deals with an issue affecting homes across the country.
Awaab died on December 21, 2020. Following six days of evidence at an inquest into his death at Rochdale Coroners' Court, Ms Kearsley concluded Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) - which owns and manages the Freehold estate where Awaab lived - should have carried out repairs on the property between July and December 2020, when it knew about the mould.
She also criticised the advice that was given to his father, Faisal Abdullah, when he first complained about the problem in autumn 2017 to 'paint over the mould'.
Ms Kearsley ruled that medical advice given to Awaab's family before the toddler's death meant he received 'sub-optimal' care that could not prevent his cardiac arrest, but she did not feel the actions of RBH or Northern Care Alliance NHS Trust amounted to 'neglect'.
She said: "I'm sure I am not alone in asking how does this happen? How in the UK in 2020 does a two-year-old child die from exposure to mould in his home? The evidence from this inquest quite clearly showed that this issue is not simply a Rochdale problem. Nor is damp and mould simply a social housing problem."
The coroner added: “The tragic death of Awaab will and should be a defining moment for the housing sector in terms of increasing knowledge, increasing awareness and a deepening of understanding surrounding the issue of damp and mould."
Ms Kearsley gave a narrative conclusion for Awaab's death, with a medical cause of acute airway oedema with severe granulomatous tracheobronchitis, due to environmental mould exposure.
She told the court: "Awaab Ishak died as a result of a severe respiratory condition caused due to prolonged exposure to mould in his home environment. Action to treat and prevent the mould was not taken. His severe respiratory condition led to Awaab going into respiratory arrest."
The Housing Ombudsman, meanwhile, spoke of a 'dramatic increase' in cases of damp and mould and he would be 'looking very carefully at the casework we have' with Rochdale Boroughwide Housing. Speaking to Radio 4’s Today programme on Wednesday, Richard Blakeway said: "This is an appalling, heart-breaking case but, sadly, the kind of failures that we saw here, whilst they may not have as tragic a consequence, they often happen and they often cause deep distress, profound distress to residents."
He said landlords needed a clear, urgent and proactive approach to dealing with issues.
He added: “I think one of the issues that we’ve seen here is that landlords have not always prioritised or focused on issues like damp and mould and there’s kind of been almost a dismissive attitude by some, a kind of fatalism by some. You can see now the consequences of it. I have seen a dramatic increase in the case work on damp and mould."
Ms Nandy, in her letter, welcomed the summoning by Mr Gove to his department of Gareth Swarbrick, the chief executive of Rochdale Boroughwide Housing. Mr Gove said it 'beggars belief' Mr Swarbrick was still in his job following the 'unacceptable tragedy', saying in the aftermath of the case: "We all know that local authorities are facing challenging times when it comes to finance but, frankly, that is no excuse.
"When you have got a situation where you have a young child in a house that is unfit for human habitation, it is a basic responsibility of the local authority – but particularly the housing association – to make sure that people are in decent homes."
"All this what-aboutery, all this 'oh, if only we had more government money' - do your job, man."
Ms Nandy said: "The coroner said 'this must be a defining moment for the housing sector'. I agree. It must be a long overdue wake-up call for Government, too.
"The Government's own figures show that the households with the highest rates of overcrowding are in ethnic minority groups. 24 per cent of Bangladeshi, 18 per cent of Pakistani and 16 per cent of black African people live in what the Government defines as 'overcrowded housing'.
"Awaab's family have expressed their wish that action is taken to prevent any other family going through the pain they are suffering. I hope this is now an area where we can work constructively together to end this stain on the nation's conscience and bring our housing stock up to standard once and for all."
What was said in the commons today
Making a statement in the House of Commons today, Housing Secretary Michael Gove accused the landlord of Awaab Ishak’s family of a “terrible dereliction of duty”. He said: “Awaab’s father first articulated his concerns in 2017.
"Others, including health professionals, also raised the alarm. But the landlord failed to take any kind of meaningful action.
"Rochdale Boroughwide Housing’s repeated failure to heed Awaab’s family’s pleas to remove the mould in their damp-ridden property was a terrible dereliction of duty. Worse still, the apparent attempts by Rochdale Boroughwide Housing to attribute the existence of mould to the actions of Awaab’s parents was beyond insensitive and deeply unprofessional.”
Praising the coroner, Mr Gove said: “As she said, it’s scarcely believable that a child could die from mould in 21st-century Britain or that his parents should have to fight tooth and nail, as they did, in vain to save him.”
He paid tribute to Awaab’s family for their “tireless fight for justice” and said: “They deserved better and their son deserved better.”
Following this statement, Conservative MP Chris Clarkson (Heywood and Middleton) told MPs: “This is not an isolated incident. Just this week I was sent photographs of a house in Middleton with its walls caked in black mould and rising damp.
“That is an RBH property and my constituent sent me a copy of her doctor’s note saying she and her children are now severely ill because of these conditions. RBH are modern-day slumlords.”
He called on ministers to instigate a “root-and-branch investigation”, adding: “Can I ask that if he agrees with me that when the director is claiming £157,000 in earnings that he must bear full responsibility for what has happened?”
The Communities Secretary replied: “He is absolutely right that the leadership of RBH have presided over a terrible situation in his constituency. Action does need to be taken.
“He is absolutely right that we need to make sure that all of the tools at our disposal are used to investigate what went on and to hold those accountable.
“He is also right to say that individuals who earn well in excess of what our Prime Minister earns and who have responsibility for 12,500 homes should take the consequences of these actions.”
Since this speech in Parliament, Yasmin Qureshi, Labour MP for Bolton South East, joined the M.E.N campaign and said: “The tragic death of Awaab Ishak in Rochdale shows that we need more stringent regulation in our housing market to ensure that a case like this never happens again. But above all, this case should never have happened in the first place. Landlords should have a duty to ensure that homes are fit for human habitation and ensure that their tenants have a safe place they can call home.
“The Labour Party have been clear on not only this individual case, but the problems with the housing market more generally. Lisa Nandy, Labour’s shadow levelling up secretary, has written to Michael Gove calling on him to introduce a decent homes standard to be introduced without delay to support tenants with greater rights and security in their own homes.”
Rochdale's Labour MP Sir Tony Lloyd said Awaab’s death was “preventable and unforgivable” as he asked in the commons about “classifying mould as a category one hazard because that would be an important step in protection”.
He added: “There needs to be a specific recognition that if we are to prevent this kind of tragedy, we have to have enforcement and we have to have structures which have the resources to enforce local authority housing ombudsmen.”
On Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH), Sir Tony said he had “very little faith … in the senior management of that body”. He said: “There needs to be some personal responsibility in this and the capacity actually for those at senior level to face the consequences.
“There are serious issues, I really do think the chief executive and perhaps some of those on other executive bodies need to question their own role and whether they should be there any longer.”
What MPs from outside Greater Manchester had to say
Labour MP Diane Abbott (Hackney North and Stoke Newington) said: “It is difficult to imagine anything much sadder than watching your child literally cough to death because people that were supposed to act didn’t act. The family are of the opinion that they were treated in this way because they were migrants and because they were black.
"We all know all sorts of tenants have this issue."
Conservative MP Bob Blackman for Harrow East told the Commons: “I am afraid the advice that was given to his parents is the normal advice up and down the country when people inspect damp and mould. ‘It is your lifestyle, not the condition of the building’.
“Will he therefore look at appropriate amendments to the Social Housing (Regulation) Bill that we can do to strengthen that Bill and make sure this tragedy really does become a sea change, we don’t see this repeated time and again up and down the country?”
Neil Coyle, independent MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark, said in the Commons: “The Government spends more on housing benefit and equivalents than on policing and transport combined. So, how much of that £20 billion of public money is paying for substandard mould-ridden private rented accommodation and will the Secretary of State accept the invitation of the housing Ombudsman to extend its remit to the private rented sector?”
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