The role of Awaab’s Law in ensuring processes are fit for purpose
The introduction of Awaab’s Law, which came into force last October, legally requires social landlords to fix emergency hazards within 24 hours and to investigate significant issues like damp and mould within 10 working days. Echelon Group CEO Mathew Baxter explores its role in ensuring processes are fit for purpose.
We welcome the new legislation placing more emphasis on ensuring that issues initially relating to condensation, damp and mould are given the priority that they should be.
The prevention, remediation and management of disrepair cases, such as damp and mould, has long been an area of focus for Echelon. Working in close partnership with national social landlord Riverside, we set up our pan-sector Disrepair Improvement Group in January 2022.
The group, whose membership spans 154 unique organisations, was set up to enable the sector to collectively investigate how disrepair could be dealt with differently to improve outcomes for tenants.
The focus has been on sharing best practice and data, as well as assisting landlords in ensuring they have the processes and systems in place to try and reduce incidents of disrepair.
Over the past three years we have worked with partner organisations and sector experts to deliver extensive training through various mediums, including condensation mould workshops, which were attended by over 550 housing professionals.
We have also undertaken detailed reviews of collateral produced by the Housing Ombudsman, particularly severe maladministration reports relating to disrepair,
disseminating information on outcomes to group members and the wider sector.
We shared the sector’s horror at the death of Awaab Ishak, and as part of the Disrepair Improvement Group we summarised the findings of the coroner’s report, getting underneath the key issues that led to Awaab’s death – not just the condition of the building, but also some of the inherent process issues that contributed to the tragic outcome.
As a result of learnings from the group, we’re currently working closely with Riverside on producing a generic alternative dispute resolution (ADR) policy that will be shared freely with organisations, across the sector to try and enable more emphasis on ADR as an alternative.
In the run up to the implementation of Awaab’s Law Echelon Consultancy advised multiple landlords on how to ensure compliance with existing contracts, as well as working with several organisations to audit the effectiveness of their approach.
Looking to the future, we’re also making sure that all new repairs-related procurement is laser focused on guaranteeing complete clarity for both client and service provider(s).
Our approach in doing this has been to develop a bespoke specification that is incorporated within the repairs specification to ensure that Awaab’s Law compliance becomes “business as usual” for all repairs contracts that we are involved in.
As well as ensuring compliance with the current requirements, the specifications also focus on the requirements that will be implemented in 2026, incorporating wider hazards including excess cold and heat; falls; structural collapse; fire electrical and explosions, and hygiene hazards. They also have the capacity to include all of the remaining hazards covered by HHSRS that will become a statutory requirement from 2027.
This isn’t just about compliance with Awaab’s Law, it’s about clearly setting requirements within procurement specifications to ensure that processes and systems are fit for purpose.
The introduction of Awaab’s Law marks a pivotal moment for the social housing sector, setting a new standard for accountability, and the right to safe homes free from hazards.
By embedding these requirements into everyday practice, and through ongoing collaboration and knowledge sharing, we can ensure that the lessons from Awaab Ishak’s death are not forgotten.
