New law aims to stop social housing failures like this shocking Northampton ceiling collapse – councillor urges tenants to know their rights

Labour Group Leader councillor Sally Keeble has called on West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) to make sure all social housing tenants know their new rights to home repairs under Awaab’s Law, which came into force on Monday (October 27).

The new law – named after Awaab Ishak, a toddler who died after being exposed to mould in his family’s council flat – sets strict rules for how quickly social landlords must act when hazards such as damp a nd mould are found in their properties. In the most serious cases, landlords must take action within 24 hours.

Cllr Keeble has written to the council’s chief executive and the chair of housing asking for assurances that:

• Tenants across the area will be told about their new rights and how to get help.

• The council’s housing provider, Northampton Partnership Homes (NPH), is ready to meet the new legal standards.

NPH manages around 11,000 properties in Northampton but has already been found by the housing regulator to have “serious failings” in managing and maintaining its homes.

Cllr Keeble said: “This is a landmark law to tackle serious disrepair in social housing. It gives tenants proper protection, but it also means landlords must step up. Too many families have been living with mould and damp for far too long, worried about what it’s doing to their children’s health.

“It provides important safeguards for social housing tenants. Many families have complained to me about mould in their homes and their fears about the impact on their children’s health.

“This new legislation will be a challenge to social housing providers, who face penalties if they do not meet the new targets. It is important that tenants know how to get help and are also assured that their landlord will be able to respond fully. Northampton Partnership Homes is one of the biggest providers of its type in the country, and it’s important the Council makes sure it can meet the challenges of this legislation.”

NPH and WNC have been contacted for comment.

The new law should mean that NPH tenants like Miatta Dakinah will no longer be left going round in circles trying to get urgent repairs fixed.

Miatta, 65, who lives in a ground-floor flat on the Spring Boroughs estate, spoke to the Chronicle & Echo in September, saying that water from her neighbour’s bathroom had been dripping into her home for months, wrecking her ceiling and spreading into her living room.

She could not use her bathroom because parts of the ceiling were “falling down on her,” there was “mould in the water,” and she was “scared of getting sick,” having to go to her daughter’s for a shower.

Her son, Joseph, said it was “heartbreaking and disgusting” to see his mother living like that, adding that she became “scared to sleep” because she thought the ceiling might fall in.

Only after intervention by the Chronicle & Echo and Cllr Keeble was the longstanding issue fixed by NPH. Her son Joseph said today: “Without the Chronicle & Echo and Cllr Keeble, we would have still been going round in circles.”