‘Housing in Rochdale needs investment’: Andy Burnham asks why £1m pulled following Awaab Ishak death

Andy Burnham has questioned why the government is pulling £1m of funding from the housing association which failed to fix mould in Awaab Ishak’s home. The Greater Manchester mayor said that the two-year-old’s death should be a ‘defining moment’, but investment will be needed to improve social housing.

Housing secretary Michael Gove announced that Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) has been stripped of a £1m government grant this week. It comes after the organisation which owns and manages the Freehold estate where Awaab Ishak lived was criticised by a coroner last week for failing to act.

The toddler died as a direct result of prolonged exposure to mould, according to coroner Joanne Kearsley, who ruled RBH should have dealt with the issue. The housing association, whose chief executive Gareth Swarbrick has since been sacked, has now lost £1m of Affordable Homes Programme funding.

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Mr Gove has said that ‘RBH will not receive a penny of additional taxpayer’s money for new housing until it gets its act together and does right by tenants’. However, speaking on BBC Radio Manchester this morning (November 24), Mr Burnham said social housing needs investment so that standards can improve.

He said: “The organisation needs to make improvements, but it’s not going to be helped in that if it’s doing that on a reduced budget.

“I would probably want to see the conditions. If Michael Gove is saying, ‘until you do x, y and z, we will hold this money back,’ that might be a fair enough move.

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham made the comments on BBC Radio Manchester this morning (Image: BBC Radio Manchester)

“However, housing in Rochdale, in the end, is going to need new investment. There’s no getting away from that.

“These problems with mould and damp, they’re up and down the country.”

Mr Burnham admitted that he took a similar approach when GMP was placed in special measures and he refused to increase its funding through council tax. He explained that he did not want to ‘reward failure’ before changes are made.

Nevertheless, he said steps are being taken by housing providers across Greater Manchester to ‘win back the confidence’ of residents and councils. The Labour mayor also praised the Secretary of State for showing ‘real intent’ to regulate social and private rented housing in a bid to drive up standards.

He said: “I’m happy to work with a Secretary of State who is responding in the right way. And he is, it would appear to me, responding in the right way.

“Although I do have some of the same questions about the reason for the withdrawal of this million pounds.”

Mr Gove said RBH would not be awarded the £1m funding from the Affordable Homes Programme for 2021 to 2026, or receive any new contracts for new homes until the Regulator of Social Housing has concluded its investigation. One site which is still being built by RBH using the £4.7m it was allocated from the previous funding programme will not see its progress stalled as a result.

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