Coroner Joanne Kearsley said RBH were not "proactive" and asked: "How in the UK in 2020 does a two-year-old child die as a result of exposure to mould?"
Awaab's family said RBH needed to "stop being racist" and provide fair treatment to people moving to the UK. Rochdale Coroner's Court heard how Awaab's father Faisal Abdullah reported mould developing in the one-bedroom flat to RBH in 2017 and was told to paint over it.
Following the grim treatment of this family, and the outpouring of support and similar stories from others, the social housing regulator has written to all social landlords about the need to tackle damp conditions.
The case has been compared to that of Grenfell Tower, where again, tenant and resident complaints were ignored. To further emphasise the seriousness of the situation Michael Gove announced that his department will cut off £1m funding to the Rochdale housing association.
The levelling-up secretary said Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) would get no further government funding from the Affordable Home Programme or receive new contracts. He has been very critical of the organisation, whose chief executive refused to resign until being sacked five days after a coroner's report.
The social housing regulator is investigating RBH, which manages more than 12,000 homes in and around Rochdale. Until it has been signed off as a responsible landlord, the housing association will be locked out of government funding and contracts.
Gove has pledged to also block new funding to other housing providers found to be failing tenants and awarded a new £14m for enforcement teams to inspect private landlords.
Gove said: "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. Everyone deserves the right to live in safe, decent home and this government will always act to protect tenants."
Housing associations are responsible for most of the estimated four million social homes in England. In 2010, the coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats cut direct funding for social housing by 60 percent. A quarter (24.9%) of Disabled people rent social housing, compared to 7.9% of non-disabled people.
Mikey Erhardt, from Disability Rights UK, said: "The housing sector is a dangerous mess for Disabled people. We experience inaccessible homes, huge rates of disrepair, hazardous homes and poor behaviour from housing providers across tenures.
It is appalling that someone else has had to lose their life, for the government to finally step up and act. Rampant mismanagement, poor conditions, and exploitation of tenants that is rife across the social and private rented sectors.
We need to see this newly fierce rhetoric become decisive action. We need real action to tackle the housing emergency. The government must freeze rents for all and retrofit the houses we live in so they are safe and accessible. The government has let this crisis run on for far too long and we hope it doesn’t take more deaths and horror stories for changes to finally happen.”
