The government says housing providers will lose grants if they fail to address safety concerns.
Housing providers that fail to address safety and quality concerns will be blocked from new government funding as part of a crackdown on poor standards.
It comes after a coroner ruled that the death of toddler Awaab Ishak was caused by exposure to mould in his home.
As part of the new measures, the association involved, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH), will not receive £1m of expected funding.
Housing Secretary Michael Gove said it should serve as a “warning” to others.
Two-year-old Awaab died in December 2020 after developing a respiratory condition brought on by the state of the social housing he was living in.
An inquest into the death heard that, beginning in 2017, his family repeatedly raised concerns about mould in the flat with RBH, but that no action was taken.
At one point, the family said, they were told to paint over an area where mould had developed.
Under new plans, housing providers that do not meet standards set by the Regulator of Social Housing will not receive any new funding from the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) until improvements have been made.
Providers that breach regulator standards will also be stripped of existing funding, except where construction has already begun.
The AHP is a government scheme that provides grants to contribute towards the cost of building affordable housing.
The government has said RBH will not get £1m in funding it had been set to receive from the fund, or receive any new AHP contracts, until it can “prove it is a responsible landlord”.
It added that it would continue to monitor standards for RBH tenants “closely”.
Image source, PA Media
Over the weekend, Mr Gove wrote to all social housing providers, as well as every council leader in England, to say they were being put “on notice”.
He said that housing providers should carry out assessments of damp and mould in their properties and take “prompt action” to keep tenants safe when concerns were raised.
Announcing the latest measures, Mr Gove said RBH had “failed its tenants” and would “not receive a penny of additional taxpayers’ money for new housing until it gets its act together and does right by tenants”.
“Let this be a warning to other housing providers who are ignoring complaints and failing in their obligations to tenants. We will not hesitate to act,” he said.
RBH’s chief executive was sacked on Saturday.
In a statement on Tuesday, the association acknowledged it had “got things badly wrong” and said the “whole organisation… is completely focussed on putting things right for our customers”.
It added that it would “now significantly accelerate inspection of every single home we visit for damp and mould, and we will take immediate action where needed”.
Responding to the announcements, Lisa Nandy MP, Labour’s shadow housing and levelling up secretary, said it was “right to stand up to failing social landlords” but that there was “no excuse for not showing the same regard for millions of private rented tenants who live in squalid, unsafe conditions and are evicted if they dare to complain”.
Labour has pledged that, if it wins the next election, it would bring in a renters’ charter that would, among other things, create a national register of landlords and introduce new legally-binding standards for the private rental sector.