Judi Love has revealed her young son once ended up in intensive care due to damp social housing.
The Loose Women presenter, 42, was a struggling single mother-of-two before she got her big break on the ITV daytime show's panel.
Judi, who is a qualified social worker, has now spoken out about how her 11-year-old son was seriously ill after developing breathing problems due to the damp social housing, as she reflected on two-year-old Awaab Ishak's tragic death.
Awaad died after prolonged exposure to mould and damp at his home in Rochdale, which a coroner concluded had contributed to severe respiratory problems.
"The world was left heartbroken last week after learning that two-year-old Awaab Ishak, who passed away in 2020, had died following exposure to mould in his home," she wrote in her OK! magazine column.
"Awaab’s death makes me so emotional because it takes me back to a time when I was living in social housing, fighting my housing company due to the damp that was taking over my home. My son ended up in intensive care because of similar breathing complications.
"No one should be forced to live in such conditions. I feel that both class and race are major factors in why Awaab’s family were not listened to when they asked for help. I sincerely hope that they are served justice of some kind."
An inquest into the death of Awaab prompted an outcry last week after it found he died in December 2020 from a respiratory condition caused by mould in the one-bedroom housing association flat where he lived with his parents, Faisal Abdullah and Aisha Amin, in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.
Gareth Swarbrick, the chief executive of Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH), was removed from his position on Saturday.
Michael Gove wrote a letter to all local authority chief executives in England, as well as a separate letter to all social housing providers.
Addressing the latter, he said that the country needed to “raise the bar dramatically” on the quality of social housing and “empower tenants” to ensure “their voices are truly heard”.
He said housing providers should carry out assessments of damp and mould in their properties, as well as any action that may need to be taken to tackle the issue.
In his letter he warned providers: "I want to be clear about what this must mean in relation to damp and mould, as I have been made aware of many cases where this has gone unaddressed for far too long and am concerned that they are not treated with sufficient seriousness.
"Where people complain about damp and mould, you must listen; where you find them, you must take prompt action. To keep tenants safe, you must not hide behind legal process."
Mr Gove, in the letter to council leaders, calls the death of Awaab an "avoidable loss".
