{"id":119487,"date":"2022-12-15T12:07:48","date_gmt":"2022-12-15T12:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/?p=119487"},"modified":"2022-12-15T12:18:18","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T12:18:18","slug":"significant-failings-found-at-housing-association-where-awaab-ishak-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/building-control-news\/significant-failings-found-at-housing-association-where-awaab-ishak-died\/119487\/","title":{"rendered":"Social housing regulator investigation into RBH finds ‘significant failures’"},"content":{"rendered":"

An investigation by the regulator of social housing following the death of Awaab Ishak has found significant failings in how Rochdale Boroughwide Housing deals with damp and mould<\/h2>\n

An investigation by the social housing regulator has found significant failings in how Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) deals with dampness and mould across the organisation, even beyond the specific findings regarding the death of toddler Awaab Ishak<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As a result, RBH has breached the regulator\u2019s consumer and governance standards.<\/p>\n

Levelling up secretary Michael Gove previously stripped RBH of \u00a31m funding from the\u00a0Affordable Homes Programme (AHP 2021-26)<\/a> pending the results of the social housing regulator investigation.<\/p>\n

The social housing regulator investigation found a lack of ‘fairness and respect’ for tenants<\/h3>\n

The investigation found that RBH waited nearly two years after Awaab Ishak\u2019s death to check for damp and mould<\/a> in other homes on the estate.<\/p>\n

When they did eventually check, they found hundreds of tenants living with damp and mould. Awaab Ishak\u2019s death should have alerted RBH to the safety risks for its tenants, but it failed to act quickly and protect more tenants from potential harm.<\/p>\n

RBH made incorrect assumptions about the cause of damp and mould<\/a> in Awaab Ishak\u2019s home and failed to act to resolve the issues. RBH did not treat Awaab Ishak\u2019s family with fairness and respect, and the regulator does not have confidence that RBH is treating other tenants with fairness and respect.<\/p>\n

Internal and external communication at RBH were ineffective<\/h3>\n

Wider failings within RBH meant that it gave the regulator inadequate information about damp and mould shortly after Awaab Ishak\u2019s death. The widespread issues in its homes which it later found severely undermine RBH\u2019s credibility and exposes significant failings in the way it treats damp and mould.<\/p>\n

RBH has weaknesses in its IT and internal communications, which led to vital information being missed<\/a>. The repairs team were unaware of the concerns raised by Awaab Ishak\u2019s healthcare worker, which may have enabled them to identify the risks earlier.<\/p>\n

The regulator expects RBH to take urgent action to address these failings and will take enforcement action if necessary.<\/p>\n

In particular, the regulator is pushing RBH to improve the way it is run and to fix its approach to managing damp and mould in tenants\u2019 homes.<\/p>\n

The regulator expects all social landlords to learn lessons from the case<\/h3>\n

The regulator\u2019s findings send a clear message to all social landlords that:<\/p>\n