What you get for your money in Rochdale’s social housing

It’s the housing that’s supposed to be protecting people from an unforgiving market. ‘Social housing’ – with rents more affordable than what you would get renting privately – which comes with, as a legacy of last century’s ‘slum clearance’ programmes, the expectation that standards should be better too.

Tania Walsh is a tenant of a social housing provider. She pays £103.32 a week, with service charges of £2.39 a week. But for that, she gets a home that she describes as ‘falling apart’.

She is paying just below the average at Rochdale Boroughwide Housing for a three-bedroom house which they say is £107.58. This is just above the average weekly cost of a one-bed flat at £84.96 and a two-bed home for £98.29.

Tania claims that gaps are emerging in the brickwork at the front of the house, plaster is flaking off the walls. The kids can never get warm, she claims.

Reports, investigations and campaigning in the last two years, shone a light on conditions in the housing which is supposed to be helping people – conditions which are forcing people like Tania Walsh to fork out small fortunes in costs they never expected.

Rochdale is one Greater Manchester’s most affordable places to live, but this week there were just 30 privately rented properties listed on one major lettings site, with rents asked for ranging from £900 to £1,550 per month.

The definition of affordable housing is no more than 80 per cent of the market rent, and Tania’s property, rented from social housing provider RBH, comes in well below what many private landlords are asking for.

But she estimates she has spent thousands on new furniture, clothes and furnishings ruined by the air in her home. Currently her house, described by her as ‘upside down’, is littered with bagged up possessions to protect them.

To give an impression of what she’s had to deal with, she offered the Local Democracy Reporting Service a tour of her home to showcase the conditions she is battling. She believes structural issues are the cause of her constant problems with damp and mould.

She claims these problems have persisted for the majority of the 11 years she’s lived off Queensway – and that now, she’s ‘just done’.

The sheer scale of RBH tenants ‘complaints uncovered since 2022 raises questions about the state of some of the town’s housing stock.

 

 

It isn’t just social housing tenants either. David Evans, a householder who bought his home under the Right to Buy scheme, told the LDRS how his bed-frame rotted away amid is constant battle against damp – which he claims is caused by foam in the walls, or simply the soggy reality of living in an old house on a hill.

It was the death of a child that forced these issues in Rochdale into the spotlight. Awaab Ishak’s parents’ landlord, RBH, was criticised for failings in the lead up to the death of toddler Awaab Ishak. The two-year- old was killed after exposure to damp and mould which his parents had repeatedly complained about.

But, over a year after an inquest which outlined RBH’s failings in the months before his death in 2020, other tenants of the housing association, on other estates, are saying things haven’t got any better.

In regard to the housing stock they inherited, Amanda Newton, RBH Chief Executive, said: “It is widely reported that the UK has the oldest and most poorly insulated housing stock in Europe, and in common with many areas, there is a lot of work to do in Rochdale to modernise our homes. We’ve got a clear plan on how we are going to ensure that the homes that we own are fit for the future, and are working hard to make sure we do all we can to support customers while this investment work is happening.

“We’re undertaking a full condition survey of all our homes to identify any work required to help reduce the risk of damp and mould in our homes, and we’ve already committed an initial £45m to invest in those homes and complete any work identified in our surveys. Our Damp and Mould Taskforce is in place to respond to all reports of damp and mould in our customers’ homes.

“We will inspect any reports that come to us quickly and any work required to treat mould is prioritised to ensure that high-risk issues are fixed promptly. We then follow up with customers after 6, 12 and 18 months to confirm that the damp or mould has not returned.

“We are aware that some customers have had recurring issues, and this often relates to work to the outside of the property where we have found demand for contractors a real challenge. We now have a number of new contractors on board, and we will be investing more over the coming months to address this.

“If any of our customers have any concerns about damp and mould, they should contact us straight away so that we can take action. We are here to fix things and help.”

In Tania’s eyes, what could be a lovely family home has been tarnished by multiple short-term fixes for long-term problems that have repeated themselves in a vicious cycle.

“We’ve had the disrepair specialist come out this week who has been through each room and he was saying that it is all down to the work needed, nothing to do with what I’m doing. There are structural issues and damp issues, the plaster has blown and windows aren’t working.

“Painting isn’t going to solve anything, it is just covering up problems. The heat mixed with the cold and moisture are perfect conditions for mould to thrive.

“Structural issues have been brought to my attention this week. The house is falling apart and I didn’t even know – upstairs, the walls are separating (from the door frames).

“We are living in a small space in a big house. We don’t want a bigger house, we want to be able to use the one we’ve got.

“We are in a place where we are waiting for work to be done constantly. It’s not a home at the end of the day, it’s where we come back to eat, sleep and bathe – that’s it.

“In my room where the boys are sleeping, they have a few duvets just to keep warm. I’ve had the heating on for two hours now and you can barely tell. All the structural issues are there, with gaps at the front of the house.

“It doesn’t feel like your home when there is so much intrusion from workers. The walls are wet through so they are constantly coming around painting and doing mould treatments.

“I’ve been told it needs sorting from the roof. These are pre-war built houses and they need a hell of a lot of TLC – and it is not being done.

“It’s not a nice place for my kids to be and it is not that. This is my frustration for them.”

The 40-year-old claims she spends her spare time cleaning black mould from wherever it pops up next, on the phone to RBH reporting yet another issue or hosting one of their workmen. RBH said they were ‘very sorry’ about the issues Tania had experienced, but said ‘no structural safety issues’ had been identified. They said they had identified ‘localised leaks and rising dampness’ and were ‘arranging works to address these issues as quickly as possible’.

 

 

Just down the road on the Kirkholt estate, a Hill Top Drive RBH tenant, who did not want to be named, claimed that she was made to wait six months for work to be done in her home.

“I had mould issues,” she said. “They came to treat it but didn’t do it properly, they had decorators around who didn’t know how they should treat mould.

“I believe the contractors aren’t trained properly. Even their own RBH staff, their knowledge is lacking.

“I think a few people have issues with damp and mould on this street.”

Walking through the estate the occasional RBH work van can be spotted whizzing through the streets – which locals say is a regular occurrence.

And not everyone is dissatisfied. One man, also a Hill Top Drive resident, said he’s had no problem with the housing association for the many years he has been with them.

Alan Camp is complimentary of RBH’s speedy service, something that a number of other residents agreed with on the street.

“I’ve lived with council housing all my life and never had issues,” the 68-year-old former milkman said. “It depends on how important the issue is, but they come out quite quickly to check, they get someone out and they get it done when it needs to be done.

“I’ve been happy with them. I’ve heard of mould issues but I think it’s the people not looking after their homes.

“My accommodation is fine because I keep on top of things. If people leave it, it gets worse.”

David Evans, 45, bought his home for £70,000 from Rochdale Council. It’s of the same stock as the nearly 14,000 homes that the council transferred to RBH in 2012.

He says he inherited issues of damp that he’s had to fork out to fix. Due to his home being connected to an RBH property, the work to the exterior is still partly funded by the housing association.

“I think the damp is possibly due to the foam in the walls they put in a few years back in all these homes,” the 45-year-old said. “I believe there is dampness in houses but we’re up on the hill and they’re old houses, so it is what it is.

“I inherited issues here when I bought 15 years ago – it’s stuff like the roofing and the pointing (mortaring between the bricks). I paid around £3,000 for roof repairs.”

The illustrator and designer highlighted the pointing on the brickwork on his exterior wall – flicking it off with ease.. He believes this is the cause of damp in his home, and many of the other RBH run homes on the estate.

Due to a herniated disc and issues with a trapped nerve, David has only recently been able to walk properly recently, and has been slowly getting round to sorting the work required in his home.

David explained that he did get a 70 per cent discount when buying his council home via the Right to Buy scheme, so counts himself lucky to be in his position – meaning he feels less obliged to complain about the issues. He has spent thousands on the upkeep of his home already with more costs sure to come.

He explained that anything leaning against an exterior wall has been left damp or mouldy – he even had a bed frame that rotted away because of the damp.

“All the pointing is coming away, you can’t put anything against a wall because there is damp in the wall. It goes all the way up

“They have obviously come and done a quick job with it. There is moss here that grows on damp.

“I complained about damp a few times before I bought it and they said it’s due to single pane windows. I got a big discount when I bought this, but I have regrets that I didn’t push more before regarding the damp.

“I took their word that once the windows were sorted it would be fine. But it’s not.”

Amanda Newton, RBH Chief Executive, said: “We are extremely sorry that some of our customers have concerns with the condition of their homes. We are investing in our homes across Rochdale and we have made significant improvements to many of our properties, but we know that there is still much more to do.

“We welcome the feedback from our customers and we continue to listen and respond to ensure our services improve. Some of the issues we face are complex and we are working hard to deliver long-term, sustainable repairs.

“If we suspect that there is damp or mould in a home, we will send out an inspector to find out what could be causing the problem. We listen to our customers and take every report seriously. If any customers have any concerns about damp and mould, we urge them to contact us as soon as possible so that our specialist team can attend, investigate and carry out the works that are needed.

“We are very sorry about the issues that Ms Walsh has experienced. Our surveyor has carried out a thorough inspection of Ms Walsh’s home. While no structural safety issues have been identified, we have identified localised leaks and rising dampness, and we are arranging works to address these issues as quickly as possible. We are also installing additional loft insulation in her home.

“We aim to make it as easy as possible to report any issues to RBH. Customers can contact us on Freephone 0800 027 7769, email us at customer@rbh.org.uk, or contact us via our online MyRBH portal. They can also attend one of our regular drop-in sessions across the Borough – where no appointment is needed – and we are looking at how we can increase the number of ways customers can meet the RBH team face-to-face.”

George Lythgoe, Local Democracy Reporter