Keep up to date with all the big stories from across Greater Manchester in the daily Mancunian Way newsletter. You can receive the newsletter direct to your inbox every weekday by signing up right here.“We shouted out as loudly as we could,” said Awaab Ishak’s parents, in the wake of their son’s inquest.
Awaab had just celebrated his second birthda y when he died after prolonged exposure to damp and mould at his Rochdale home in December 2020. “All homes must be fit for human habitation. And we need an investigation into the treatment of refugees in the housing system and the role that racism may have played in this case.The Labour Wigan MP has written to Housing Secretary Michael Gove calling for an investigation and for a decent homes standard to be introduced without delay.
He has summoned Rochdale Boroughwide Housing chief executive Gareth Swarbrick - who was paid £170,000 last year - to his department for a meeting. He told broadcasters it ‘beggars belief’ that he is still in his job. “He is coming here in order to explain to me why it was that this tragedy was allowed to happen,” Mr Gove said.
But it’s certainly not the first time a Manchester Evening News reporter has spoken to families at their wits end, or suffering health problems, while living in unacceptable conditions. As coroner Joanne Kearsley said as she delivered her conclusion on the case, the issue is ‘not simply a Rochdale problem’ and damp and mould is not ‘a social housing problem’.Mr Gove - who today accused RBH of a ‘terrible dereliction of duty’ - has promised to ‘act immediately on the recommendations of the coroner’.
But he says the moment in court which struck him most was when RBH gave its new admissions on day three. “The case shows us a lot about how people in our society don’t get their voices heard no matter how loud they shout - and that needs to change.” Sedgefield MP Paul Howell was speaking against Labour’s proposal that former PM Liz Truss and former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng should not take some severance pay - due to the economic turmoil caused by the mini-budget.
There were audible gasps from Ms Nandy, shadow minister Sarah Owen and Liverpool Wavertree MP Paula Barker and Mr Howell immediately apologised. Council bosses say Manchester would be £77m a year better off had it only received the average cut to local government funding.
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