New fight for safer homes

SOCIAL housing tenants will be urged to complain about shoddy and dangerous housing in a major government advertising campaign.

Housing Secretary Michael Gove said the campaign, which will encourage tenants to voice complaints first to landlords and then to the Housing Ombudsman if necessary, will ‘shine a light’ on rogue landlords.

The focus on substandard housing follows the case of twoyear-old Awaab Ishak, who died in December 2020 from a respiratory condition caused by mould in his housing assocation home.

The Government has since put forward Awaab’s Law, which requires landlords to fix reported hazards in social housing, such as mould, in a ‘timely fashion’ or rehouse tenants in safe accommodation.