No fobbing off

Gove hits out at housing bosses

BOSSES at a housing association which failed to act before the death of toddler Awaab Ishak failed to grasp the scale of change needed after the tragedy, MPS heard yesterday.

Minister Michael Gove said he met with bosses at Rochdale Boroughwide Housing after a coroner ruled Awaab, right, had died as a result of black mould in his home but was unimpressed with their response. Awaab, two, died in December 2020 after his parents’ pleas to deal with the mould in their flat in Rochdale were ignored, a coroner ruled last week.

RBH chief exec Gareth Swarbrick was finally sacked at the

weekend from his £185,000 a year position, which included two recent pay rises. Mr Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, yesterday said: “Even when in RBH’S case they had all these problems brought to their attention the board felt it was appropriate to keep the chief executive in place.”

He warned that housing associations would no longer be able to “fob off responsibility” under a shake-up being pushed through by the Government.