Gove pulls £1m funding from Awaab Ishak’s landlord and cuts access to AHP
The government has cut an expected £1m in Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) funding from the housing association whose mould-ridden flat led to the death of a toddler.
Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) has been told by the government that it will not receive the expected money, or any new contracts from the AHP, until it can prove that it is a responsible landlord following the death of Awaab Ishak.
The AHP is the primary channel for funds to be distributed to housing associations and local authorities to build new homes.
In a release from the government today, housing secretary Michael Gove confirmed that a ban will stay in place until the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has concluded its investigation and it can prove it is a responsible landlord.
RBH admitted this week that it “did make assumptions about [the family’s] lifestyle” and that “we accept that we got that wrong”.
Awaab died in December 2020 from a respiratory condition caused by mould in the RBH flat, where he lived with parents Faisal Abdullah and Aisha Amin in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.
Awaab had just turned two. His family had repeatedly complained about the condition of the flat.
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In response to the two-year-old’s tragic death, the government is monitoring the housing standards of RBH tenancies closely and working with the English regulator and Housing Ombudsman to ensure that tenants have appropriate housing.
As part of a wider crackdown on poor standards, Mr Gove has announced he will block any housing provider that breaches the RSH’s consumer standards from new AHP funding until they make improvements.
The housing secretary will also consider stripping providers of existing AHP funding, unless construction has already started on site.
The move comes after Mr Gove warned landlords in a letter that they “must not hide behind legal process” when responding to damp and mould complaints following the tragic death of Awaab.
Mr Gove said today: “RBH failed its tenants so it will not receive a penny of additional taxpayers’ money for new housing until it gets its act together and does right by tenants.
“Let this be a warning to other housing providers who are ignoring complaints and failing in their obligations to tenants: we will not hesitate to act.
“Everyone deserves the right to live in safe, decent home, and this government will always act to protect tenants.”
The housing secretary’s decision to cut RBH from the AHP follows a demand from the regulator to all landlords to submit evidence to the RSH to show that they have systems in place to deal with damp and mould.
Today, the government has also announced it will launch a £1m public information campaign early next year to make sure tenants know their rights and can hold housing providers to account.
The government has acknowledged that poor safety and quality is not just an issue in social housing. As a result, it has awarded a share of £14m for seven areas with high numbers of poor privately rented homes to crack down on rogue landlords and test new approaches to driving up standards.
Funded projects include £2.3m for Greater Manchester to increase the use of fines where a landlord is found to have committed an offence, and more than £1.1m for Cornwall to create a database of private rented accommodation in the area and record standards to target better enforcement action.
