Inside Housing – Home – The Week in Housing: 24 hours for emergency repairs

Awaab Ishak died as a direct result of prolonged exposure to mould in a Rochdale Boroughwide Housing flat Good afternoon.
24 hours. That’s how long social landlords will have to complete emergency repairs once identified under the proposals set out for Awaab’s Law.
A consultation, launched by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) this week, proposes new legal requirements for landlords to investigate hazards within 14 days.
Once a hazard is identified they must start fixing it within a further seven days, and make emergency repairs within 24 hours.
Emergency repairs are defined in the consultation document as those that present a “significant and imminent risk of harm” and include gas leaks, broken boilers and electrical hazards such as exposed wires.
The consultation comes six months after the Social Housing (Regulation) Act became law.
Awaab’s Law, named after two-year-old Awaab Ishak, who died as a direct result of prolonged exposure to mould in a Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) flat, was an amendment to the act.
Despite repeated pleas for help from Awaab’s family, RBH failed to take appropriate action to fix the issues.
As the government outlined this approach, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) revealed plans for its own new Awaab-inspired scheme.
The GMCA expects a “large proportion” of social landlords in Greater Manchester to sign a new charter aimed at boosting housing standards.
A six-week consultation on how the voluntary Good Landlord Charter will operate was launched by Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham. The scheme will involve private and social landlords applying to become a member by showing they are meeting “legal minimum standards” for renting homes.
Mr Burnham said the idea was partly initiated by the “devastating conclusions” from the inquest of Awaab Ishak.
No one in the sector will argue that these reforms are not necessary to drive up standards, but the question remains how deliverable they will be due to cost and capacity at a time of competing financial pressures.
Local authorities are particularly stretched at the moment, with reports suggesting that one in five English councils are at risk of bankruptcy.
Rising costs have meant that one London council, which owns around 10,500 council homes, is carrying out emergency repairs only amid high demand.
Enfield Council said that for a “short period” it will prioritise emergency issues, while non-emergency repairs will be “programmed for delivery at a future date”.
While Enfield’s plan to prioritise emergency repairs might be compatible with what is set out in Awaab’s Law, to make the proposals work, landlords are going to put a lot more resources into preventive maintenance to stop problems becoming life threatening in the first place.
But where is the money going to come from? Ultimately from the government’s other big announcement, the rent settlement for 2024-25, one it was accused of trying to sneak out.
One resident group told Inside Housing it believes the government was hoping the news of a 7.7% rent cap for 2024-25 would go unnoticed because it is an election year.
This will apply to rents for new and existing tenants from April 2024 this year.
The Social Housing Action Campaign said: “The low-key publicity surrounding this statement no doubt reflects the government’s recognition that sharply hiking rents for the poorest and most vulnerable tenants in Britain is not a good look in an election year, and are hoping that it will go largely unnoticed.”
However, the Chartered Institute of Housing backed the return to an inflation-linked hike in social rents, saying it was necessary for landlords to invest in new and existing stock.
Residents would be right to feel aggrieved by the increase, but landlords are being asked to do a lot with this income. Something’s got to give.
In a move that is hoped to have an impact on the quality of new build developments, the Housing Ombudsman and the New Homes Ombudsman signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) setting out how they will work with each other.
The MoU is based on the relevant provisions in the Building Safety Act 2022 and the Housing Act 1996, while recognising that the New Homes Ombudsman is currently a voluntary scheme.
It sets out the functions of each organisation and describes the arrangements for co-operation and communication between the two bodies, and also clarifies any potential overlap in the jurisdiction of each.
Given the number of evacuations due to building safety issues over the past few months, both watchdogs look set to have their hands full.



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