‘Not a lifestyle issue’: Council repairs service changes tack on damp and mould following death of toddler in Rochdale

Mould pictured on an estate in Haggerston last year. Photograph: Julia Gregory

A housing boss has pledged that residents are at the heart of the repairs service after the death of a two-year-old in Rochdale from breathing problems caused by mould.

Awaab Ishak died from a severe respiratory illness brought on by mould in his housing association home in northwest England.

It has sent shockwaves through councils and housing associations across the country.

Housing strategic director Steve Waddington told Hackney councillors that said “the resident is at the centre of everything we do”.

“The case in Rochdale was horrendous,” he added. “Nobody should be in that situation.”

He said it was important to remember the person whose home is affected by a problem.

He told the Living in Hackney scrutiny commission that staff are asked to consider if repairs “are good enough for your mum, if not, they’re not good enough”.

His team was answering questions about a backlog of 7,000 repairs during the pandemic and how it deals with problems like damp and mould.

The council was also hit by a cyber attack in 2020 that affected records of problems across Hackney’s council housing.

The repairs teams complete 70,000 jobs a year and the council has added more people to the roster to help meet demand.

In January, residents were hanging on the telephone for an average of two hours and seven minutes, with staff taking 11,602 calls that month.

By November, the time residents waited had dropped to 21 minutes, with 19,459 calls handled.

Cllr Soraya Adejare, who chairs the commission, said: “It is problematic for residents to wait for 21 minutes. It is not satisfactory.”

The council hopes to get wait times down to five minutes or less, and staff pointed out there is a callback system.

Waddington told councillors: “It’s about really putting residents at the heart of what we do. Fundamentally we are here to provide a service for residents.”

Last month saw staff and contractors finish nearly 8,000 repairs, more than any month of the pandemic. However, there were still 2,199 outstanding repairs at the end of November.

Repairs are dealt with in nine days on average.

Call handlers took just under 22,000 phone calls, including follow-up conversations, in November and ordered 10,000 repairs.

Waddington pointed out that the number of repairs tends to go up in rainy and bad weather.

Along with the number of repairs increasing, the council has also seen an increase in complaints.

“It’s not where we want to be,” said Waddington, but adde that more people say they are satisfied than dissatisfied in follow-up questionnaires.

The housing director said the council is launching a 24-hour online reporting tool in the new year so residents can upload pictures and details of problems.

It is hoped this will free up phone lines for those who are not digitally connected.

Waddington said the council now has a 24-hour response to damp and mould, rather than a “containment” policy.

In the past, mould was painted over, and now the council aims to get a survey done within five days.

“We now agree that damp and mould is not a lifestyle issue.”

A spokesperson for Hackney Council later clarified this comment, saying that the council’s approach has long been not to treat damp and mould as a lifestyle issue – even before Ishak’s death in Rochdale.

He said it was important to understand the “nature of the problem”, with extremely cold walls at some homes causing problems.

Waddington told the Citizen that the repairs teams are asked to check with neighbours if they have similar problems, depending on the issue, such as a leak or mould.

Housing Ombudsman Richard Blakeway issued a report last year calling for landlords to change their attitudes to damp and mould.

He renewed his calls this autumn following the inquest into Awaab’s death.

Cllr Adejare called for the recording of repeat visits and to see how complex a case might be and the length of time to deal with it.

Waddington said: “We aim to get it right first time.”

Cllr Ali Sadek (King’s Park) raised the case of a resident in her 70s who was without heating and hot water for three weeks.

He said the case was dealt with after he raised it and Waddington pledged to investigate what went wrong.

Update: this article was amended at 1pm on 15 December 2022 to add a clarification to comments from Steve Waddington about the council’s approach to damp and mould, following a request from Hackney Council,