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Tragic, preventable deaths happen even in advanced countries with strong institutions. Sometimes the only conclusion to be drawn is that someone didn’t do their job. But often there are uncomfortable lessons for government in there, too.
Don’t blame us. That was the immediate reaction Tuesday of cabinet secretary Michael Gove to the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak. Awaab went into cardiac arrest in December 2020 and died on his way to the hospital, only a day after being released from the same hospital, where he was seen for breathing difficulties. At an inquest that concluded this week, the coroner determined that the cause of death was prolonged exposure to mold.
Gove was right to point an angry finger at the landlord that let down the toddler and his family. The walls of the one-bedroom flat Awaab shared with his parents north of Manchester were covered in black blotches of mold. The home was unfit for human habitation (as is obvious from the photos) but the housing association that owned the property refused to act. But Gove’s intervention also points to the central importance of an issue that barely got a mention in Thursday’s budget: housing.
Awaab’s family had complained to the landlord, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) repeatedly. In 2017, his father, a recent immigrant from Sudan, was told to paint over the mold. By 2020, he’d started a legal proceeding, but the association’s rules meant it sat on the sidelines while that slow-motion process played out. “We didn’t recognise the level of risk to a little boy’s life from the mold in the family’s home. We allowed a legal disrepair process to get in the way of promptly tackling the mold,” Gareth Swabrick, the housing association’s chief executive said in a statement.
Ignorance is no defense here. The government’s Housing Health and Safety Rating System includes damp and mold on a list of 29 potential hazards. And no landlord should need it spelled out at this point that mold is a hazard, especially when it was so visible. The perils have long been confirmed by health authorities from the World Health Organization to the National Health Service, which warns of the risks of damp and mold to babies and children. The government’s decent homes standard requires houses to be safe. People living with damp and mold are more likely to have respiratory problems, asthma, allergies and other immune-compromising conditions.
“We all know that local authorities are facing challenging times when it comes to finance, but frankly, that is no excuse. All this what-aboutery, all this ‘Oh if only we had more government money’ — do your job, man,” said Gove, who is responsible for housing along with “levelling up” the economy in Britain. But this isn’t a case of a single bad apple and Gove knows it. Governments exist precisely because people need protection from such instances. “How in the UK in 2020 does a two-year-old child die as a result of exposure to mold?” asked Coroner Joanne Kearsley. A better question is probably how many other Awaabs are there.
The English Housing Survey found in 2020 that 3.5 million occupied homes did not meet the Decent Homes Standard; 2.2 million had at least one Category 1 hazard (which includes damp and mold) and 941,000 had serious damp. While the prevalence of these poor housing conditions has declined over the past decade, it remains a serious problem especially in poorer parts of the country. Landlords save money by delaying repairs as long as possible in the hopes that tenants – especially those whose English skills may be lacking – won’t bother to make a claim.
A 2021 report from the Housing Ombudsman Service found failings in relation to damp and mold in 92 of the 142 landlords it investigated; compensation was mandated in 84 cases. As in the Ishaks’ case, landords often blamed residents for the problem. “This recurred so often it is appropriate to call it systemic,” wrote the ombudsman . It concluded “changes in culture, behavior and approach” from landlords are overdue, but change is slow without the firm smack of regulatory oversight and accountability. Indeed, there are other reports of mold growing up walls in damp flats, soaking mattresses and children’s toys, causing illness and stress.
And here’s where Awaab’s tragic death fits into the broader challenge facing Rishi Sunak as he tries to steer a shrinking British economy to a better place. Awaab was also failed by a health service struggling with staffing shortages and backlogs, and public services that are disjointed. But getting housing right is fundamental to both a civilized society and a thriving economy.
Britain has not only failed to build enough homes over many years; existing housing is too often in a sorry state. The UK has the oldest housing stock compared to EU countries. Its homes are less energy efficient and harder to heat in the winter. It also has some of the costliest housing and the most cramped accommodation of its peers.
For a country now struggling with alarming levels of economic inactivity, as new statistics show, it’s worth remembering that inadequate housing has broader societal consequences, too. People in cold, moldy or homes that fall far short of their needs tend to get sick or suffer other consequences. A 2010 study by researchers at the University of Warwick estimated the substandard housing in England was costing the NHS an estimated £600 million per year at the time. And health expenses were estimated to be only about 40% of the total cost to society from poor housing conditions. Others come from energy leakage, underperformance at school, absenteeism, social exclusion and mental health problems. The savings from one-off costs to improve housing exceeded the costs of repairs.
No wonder Gove doesn’t want Awaab’s death seen as a reflection of a broader problem. At a time when the British economy is forecast to shrink by 1.4% next year, these pressures are only going to get worse. While less than inflation, Thursday’s budget saw a 7% increase in costs for some 1.3 million in social housing.
And the government is nowhere near the Tory manifesto pledge to build 300,000 new homes a year. Gove gave a speech this week at a conference on growth in which he unveiled his plan to overcome planning obstacles to building new homes, based on the odd acronym BIDEN, with each letter representing one aspect of the strategy. The B stands for beauty. People “do not want ugliness to be imposed on them,” said Gove, so the government’s policies will ensure that new homes are aesthetically pleasing. (The other letters stand for infrastructure, democracy, environment and neighborhood).
The strategy sounds enlightened and promising; just as RBH’s colorful website does. But execution is everything. And planning and construction will take time. In the meantime, families like Awaab’s aren’t asking for beautiful homes; just ones that aren’t deadly.
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This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Therese Raphael is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion covering health care and British politics. Previously, she was editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion
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