Gove announces Awaab’s Law to force social landlords to fix mould within ‘strict’ deadlines

Mr Gove said: “The tragic death of Awaab Ishak should never have happened. He was inexcusably let down and his family repeatedly ignored. I want to pay tribute to Awaab’s family for their tireless fight for justice over the last two years. 

“Today we have announced tough new laws to force social landlords to fix their homes within strict new time limits.  

 “Those landlords who continue to drag their feet over dangerous damp and mould will face the full force of the law. 

“Our Social Housing Bill will enshrine tenants’ rights in law and strengthen the Housing Ombudsman and regulator’s powers so that poor social landlords have nowhere to hide. 

“Awaab’s Law will help to ensure that homes across the country are safe, decent and warm.” 

Social Housing Bill

The Social Housing (Regulation) Bill is due to pass into its report stage and third reading on a date to be announced.

The bill aims to grant the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) greater powers to protect residents, including plans for regular Ofsted-style inspections of housing associations’ stock and unlimited fines for poorly performing social landlords.

The RSH has already claimed that damp and mould will form a “key focus” of the sector’s new consumer regulation.

Following the coroner’s report, the RSH told all larger registered social landlords, including local authorities, to submit evidence to show they have the systems to identify and tackle damp and mould.

Estimates released by the regulator as part of its initial findings suggested that up to 6.2 per cent of the more than four million social housing homes held by large providers have damp and mould.

Other amendments to ‘Awaab’s Law’ include improvements to insolvency arrangements, data protection, the requirement for written reports after inspections and requiring social landlords to ensure their staff pass competency standards.

Other powers announced include giving the Housing Ombudsman the ability to instruct landlords to measure their service against guidance on issues such as damp and mould, to help drive improvements following complaints from tenants.

The government said it has already committed to a rapid review of existing guidance on the health impacts of damp and mould, followed by new guidance tailored to the housing sector, to be published by summer 2023. 

RBH

The government added that it is continuing to block funding to RBH to build new homes until the association can prove it is a “responsible landlord”.

In November, housing secretary Michael Gove said that RBH will not receive an expected £1m of Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) funding, or receive any new AHP contracts, until the regulator completes its investigation into the housing association. 

In December, RBH was downgraded to a non-compliant G3 rating after the RSH concluded that the landlord had breached the Home Standard.

RBH has apologised for its failings and revealed that a new damp and mould taskforce has started work, it is launching a stock condition survey and its staff are getting extra training on the issue.