Tens of thousands of homes are unsafe and “not in the state they should be”, Housing Secretary Michael Gove has said. His comments come after a coroner ruled the death of toddler Awaab Ishak was caused by exposure to mould at home.
The government has since stripped the association involved, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH), of £1m in expected funding. Mr Gove said: “We are not giving money to organisations that are operating incompetently.”
Asked on BBC Breakfast if RBH should be able to carry on, Mr Gove said the housing association had “failed” but there are signs the provider knows it needs to improve.
The housing secretary said he was visiting Rochdale on Thursday to “see the situation on the ground”.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Gove also said the government “should have moved faster” to improve things for social housing tenants in the “immediate aftermath” of the Grenfell Tower fire.
He said legislation, expected in the next calendar year, would give “additional powers” to housing authorities and ensure the voices of tenants were “heard more clearly”.
Two-year-old Awaab died in December 2020 after developing a respiratory condition brought on by the state of the social housing he was living in.
An inquest into the death heard that, beginning in 2017, his family repeatedly raised concerns about mould in the flat with RBH, but that no action was taken.
At one point, the family said, they were told to paint over an area where mould had developed.
The government has said housing providers that fail to address safety and quality concerns set by the Regulator of Social Housing will be blocked from new funding from the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) until improvements have been made.
Providers that breach regulator standards will also be stripped of existing funding, except where construction has already begun.
Mr Gove said RBH and other housing associations already have the resources needed to deal with repairs, but “poorly run” organisations should not get more public money.
RBH needs to “shape up and concentrate on delivering for tenants” and once “they’re doing their job properly they can expand”, said Mr Gove.
He told BBC Breakfast: “I fear it’s the case that there are tens of thousands of properties that are not in the state that they should be.”
There are a “significant” number of homes – some built in the 1960s and 1970s “that simply need to be properly repaired and properly maintained”, he said.
Mr Gove said there were many other housing associations and private landlords who are “not doing the right thing” and the issue needed to be tackled “nationwide”.
Asked whether he was embarrassed by the situation, Mr Gove said it made him “angry” that people were living in bad conditions.