Michael Gove strips £1m funding from landlord after boy’s death in mouldy flat

Councils get money to crack down on rogue landlords

Awaab Ishak who died in December 2020 ((Family handout/PA))

Michael Gove has cut off government funding from a housing association after a two-year-old boy died from prolonged exposure to hazardous mould in a flat that it owned.

Rochdale Boroughwide Housing has admitted it was “badly wrong” in its handling of complaints about the mould by the parents of Awaab Ishak, and its chief executive Gareth Swarbrick was removed after refusing to resign from his £170,000 job.

Mr Gove on Thursday announced the organisation will be stripped of an expected £1m in funding from the government’s affordable homes programme (AHP) and will not receive any further contracts until it can prove it is a responsible landlord.