Displaying items by tag: thousands of homes unsafe

After a coroner ruled the death of toddler Awaab Ishak was caused by exposure to mould at his home, housing secretary Michael Gove said that tens of thousands of homes are ‘not in the state they should be in’. The government has now stripped the housing association involved, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH), of £1m in expected funding. Mr Gove said, ‘We are not giving money to organisations that are operating incompetently.’ Two-year-old Awaab died from a respiratory condition caused by the social housing he was living in. His family repeatedly raised concerns about mould with RBH, but no action was taken. Mr Gove said the Government ‘should have moved faster’ to improve things for social housing tenants in the immediate aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire. Legislation in 2023 would give additional powers to housing authorities and ensure the voices of tenants were ‘heard more clearly’.