The coroner's report on the tragic death of two year old Awaab Ishak who died from a respiratory condition caused by mould in December 2020, despite his parents' repeated pleas to social housing staff in Rochdale to improve their living conditions.
His shocking death known by housing authorities and responsible client authorities for some time seems to have brought to light that many Councils nationally scrutinise the condition of social housing stock they still own or have let out, or in some cases sold to Housing Associations and links with democratically elected Councillors.
Most housing authorities who scrutinise their housing providers or housing teams managing their own Council housing stock have a complaints process to have special cases similar to that of the Ishak family heard and dealt with by providers.
Councils and Councillors who scrutinise living conditions for residents of the areas they serve receive reports from housing providers mandatory stock condition surveys and in areas of mixed provision like Northumberland also receive reports involving the conditions of tenants in the private housing sector.
Regular readers of this blog will already know how critical we are of the very secret Northumberland County Council who hate any information seeping out about errors that may be made and have choked off true scrutiny of anything they deal with. Do not release Key or Local Performance indicator figures to elected Councillors sitting on scrutiny committees and would certainly hate to have any scrutiny or even a peek at the Councils social housing stock conditions surveys, gas and electrical inspection rates of their own and local housing association stock, and how far they are in delivering the moves towards a ‘Decent Homes 2 programme’ to and for the benefit of tenants.
With 4.2M people needing access to social housing nationally and the building programme set by the last Labour administration halted on the change of administration in May 2017 Northumberland Councillors need to look at their own performance on housing deeply and sincerely and in how they help tenants to avoid missing safety problems and what the Councils targets on safety for existing tenants and report on the size of its much maligned Homefinder list or as the Council tell prospective tenants ' we don't have a list its a needs based bidding service'? Well thousand have needs but ebay housing provision and hiding behind rules and regulations need opening up to full scrutiny to really help those in need.
Northumberland Councillors from all parties need an urgent look at the national affordable rent programme cost on average more than £200 a week, over 50% higher than local social rents. The council’s social housing waiting list has risen markedly in the last five years and the need to know why Northumberland has not built any new Council houses since May 2017 and appear on the housing supply failure list of Goves levelling up department.
Councillors need to report in public on social housing and the conditions of all forms of housing in Northumberland, be trained in how they can help tenants and prospective tenants discuss and have their problems resolved and look deeply at the cost differences in rents and how they as a Council can begin to at least buy into higher numbers of empty properties in the County to help people get a decent home over their heads at a reasonable and truly affordable cost.
Also Councillors, staff bullying may have been a big issue, as is help for those who need 100% rebates on Council Tax, but Housing Needs are the nation's real BIG ISSUE so get stuck in and be honest with yourselves and your residents who need help not rhetoric and certainly not secrets.
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