Inside Housing – Home – Gove summons housing association chief after toddler’s ‘unacceptable’ death from mould

The toddler deteriorated the next day and his parents were advised by the Community Children’s Nursing Team to take him back to the Rochdale Urgent Care Centre.
Awaab went into respiratory arrest and then cardiac arrest while being transferred to Royal Oldham Hospital, the inquest heard, and died after arriving at the hospital.
Mr Gove also said that local authorities and housing associations could not blame a lack of government funding for the child’s death.
He said: “When you have got a situation where you have a young child in a house that is unfit for human habitation, it is a basic responsibility of the local authority – but particularly the housing association – to make sure that people are in decent homes.
“All this what-aboutery, all this, ‘Oh, if only we had more government money’. Do your job, man.”
Speaking after the verdict, Christian Weaver, counsel for Awaab’s family, said: “Instead of Awaab’s parents preparing for his 4th birthday, they have had to sit through a gruelling inquest process and hear the multiple ways in which the very organisations supposed to take care of Awaab failed to do so.
“Their only ask is that once and for all, the conditions for those in social housing can be improved – particularly where damp and mould is concerned and particularly where the occupiers of the homes are refugees and may not be as aware of systems and processes here in the UK.
“I hope that the findings arising out of this inquest play a significant role in helping achieve this.”
Gareth Swarbrick, chief executive of RBH, said: “I am truly devastated about Awaab’s death and the things we got wrong.
“We know that nothing we can say will bring Awaab back or be of any consolation to his family. We have and will continue to learn hard lessons from this.
“We didn’t recognise the level of risk to a little boy’s life from the mould in the family’s home. We allowed a legal disrepair process to get in the way of promptly tackling the mould.
“We must make sure this can never happen again. Awaab’s death needs to be a wake-up call for everyone in housing, social care and health.
“We will take responsibility for sharing what we have learnt about the impact to health of damp, condensation and mould with the social housing sector and beyond.”



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