There is a huge backlog of damp and mould repairs in council housing across Bristol
Awaab Ishak, who died five years ago(Image: Family)
A toddler died five years ago after prolonged exposure to mould in his home in Rochdale. The death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak sparked calls for a change in the law, to force social housing landlords to act promptly on damp and mould and prevent similar deaths happening in future.
Awaab’s Law comes into effect next month but housing chiefs at Bristol City Council have already admitted they might not comply with the rules. Only a third of council homes have been surveyed, IT systems tracking hazards need updating, and there is a huge backlog of repairs.
An update on how the council is preparing for the new law was given to councillors on the housing policy committee on Friday, September 19. Green Councillor Lisa Stone said: “We’ve known about Awaab’s Law and its intentions and yet we are completely on the back foot.”
The law comes into force on October 27. Social housing landlords will have to address all emergency hazards and damp and mould that present a significant risk within set timeframes. Awaab’s parents repeatedly complained to their landlord for three years before his death, but no action was taken to treat the mould that later killed their young son.
Mould in the kitchen shortly after Awaab’s death(Image: Greater Manchester Police)
Sonia Furzland, the council’s executive director of housing, said: “We did know that Awaab’s Law was coming, which is why we instigated a preparedness review to assist us in terms of where we need to be prioritising our work. The historical underinvestment and perhaps lack of focus on compliance areas meant that we were trying to eat a bit of an elephant.
“So we have been focusing not just on damp and mould, but on electrical inspections and compliance, repairs backlogs, smoke detection, CO2 detection, asbestos inspections and stock condition inspection surveys. We have made significant progress but we are not as far forward as we would like to be.”
Housing chiefs will bring an action plan to the policy committee about how they intend to meet the new legal requirements. Greens, who have been in charge of the council since May last year, put the blame on Labour who had run the council for the previous eight years. Labour hit back and said a new survey of council tenants shows a steep drop in how satisfied they are.
Green Councillor Barry Parsons, chair of the housing committee, said: “One of the things that we continue to discover as we open more doors and find more cases of damp and mould is evidence of historic failure under the Labour administration.”
Labour Cllr Zoë Peat added: “This administration often points to the previous one to try and justify poor performance, which is unfortunate. That’s not to say that with 14 years of austerity that Labour didn’t have to make difficult challenges. But in one year, overall [tenant] satisfaction has fallen from 71 per cent to 63, with every major category declining.”
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