Housing chief should not be in a job after toddler’s death ina mouldy flat, says Gove

Housing secretary Michael Gove has said it beggars belief” that a housing chief is still in the job after a toddler died because of a mould-ridden flat.

- THOMAS MCAVOY

Mr Gove accused the landlord of two-year-old Awaab Ishak’s family of a terrible dereliction of duty” and has vowed to name and shame” others who breach housing standards. Awaab died in December 2020 from a respiratory condition caused by mould in the one-bedroom housing association flat where he lived with his parents, Faisal Abdullah and Aisha Aminin, in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.

Making a statement in the Commons, Mr Gove said: Awaab’s father first articulated his concerns in 2017. Others, including health professionals, also raised the alarm. But the landlord failed to take any kind of meaningful action. Rochdale Boroughwide Housing’s repeated failure to heed Awaab’s family’s pleas to remove the mould in their damp-ridden property was a terrible dereliction of duty. Worse still, the apparent attempts by Rochdale Boroughwide Housing to attribute the existence of mould to the actions of Awaab’s parents was beyond insensitive and deeply unprofessional.”