LGBT+ History Month, Awaab’s Law and heat pump installations – what #UKhousing has been posting about on social media this month

This month saw housing secretary Michael Gove announce that the government will consult on Awaab’s Law, which sets strict time limits for landlords to deal with damp and mould.

Although the details are yet to be sketched out, on LinkedIn, Simone Russell, who is on the board at Estuary Housing, argued that landlords should act now. She wrote: “As we set performance indicators and service standards for the new financial year, this presents the perfect opportunity to include rightly challenging targets for responding to tenants’ reports of damp and mould in their home.”

Also on LinkedIn, Hakeem Osinaike, director of housing at Brent Council, wrote: “The unfortunate death of Awaab Ishak exposed poor practices and approaches to disrepair. Needless to say, no one should have to die as a result of the action and/or omission of their landlord. One’s home, apart from providing warmth, comfort and security, must be a place where one feels most safe.”

He also shared what Brent Council has been doing, including writing to all tenants who had reported mould in the past seven years to find out if they still have a problem and a £40m refurbishment of eight high rises to bring them up to modern standards.

@doug_parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace UK, shared a chart from The Economist that showed the UK at the bottom of the pack in installing heat pumps per 1,000 households, and pointed out “how far UK is behind on green heating”.