Councils issue 3,200 damp and mould notices in first year of Awaab’s law

Councils and the housing regulator have issued more than 3,200 enforcement notices against social landlords for damp and mould in the 12 months since Awaab’s law came into force, according to figures compiled by the Daily Meridian, with a further 11,000 complaints still under investigation.

The law, named after Awaab Ishak, the two-year-old who died in Rochdale in 2020 after prolonged exposure to mould in his family’s flat, requires social landlords in England to investigate reported hazards within 10 working days, start repairs within five more and complete emergency work within 24 hours. Landlords that miss the deadlines can be taken to court by tenants and fined by the regulator.

Data obtained from 212 local authorities shows the heaviest concentrations of notices in Greater Manchester, Birmingham, the London boroughs of Newham and Tower Hamlets, and Hull. Housing associations account for 58% of the notices, with council-owned stock making up the rest. Nine landlords have been issued with regulatory judgments for systemic failure, and one Midlands housing association has been barred from taking on new stock until it clears a backlog of 1,900 open repairs.

The Regulator of Social Housing said the figures showed the law “biting as intended” but acknowledged that compliance varied sharply. “Some landlords restructured their repairs services two years ago and are hitting every deadline,” a spokesperson said. “Others are discovering that a 10-day target is very difficult if you do not know where your damp properties are.”

The sharper criticism has come from the private rented sector, where the law does not yet apply. The renters’ rights act, passed last year, gives ministers the power to extend the same deadlines to private landlords, but the regulations have not been laid. About 4.6m households rent privately in England, and the English housing survey estimates that 11% of those homes have a damp problem, against 5% of social housing.

“My daughter has been on an inhaler since we moved in,” said Chantelle Okoro, 29, who rents a two-bedroom flat above a shop in Walthamstow and has reported mould in both bedrooms three times since January. “The agent sends someone to paint over it. If I was in a council flat I would have a date in writing. Because I pay £1,650 a month to a man I have never met, I get nothing.”

The housing minister told MPs on Thursday that the extension would be consulted on “before the end of the year” and that the government intended private landlords to face “the same clock and the same consequences”. Landlord groups say they support the principle but want a longer timetable for older properties, where damp is often structural.

Awaab’s parents, who campaigned for the law, said in a statement that the figures were “proof that deadlines save lives” and that they would not stop until “every child in every rented home” was covered.