Mould

I read at reference 1 that, following a tragic death in social housing, Michael Gove, is withholding any further funding from the landlord, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH), one of the many housing associations now providing the social housing once provided by our local councils. The local councils which the Tories cut out of the loop. This particular association is a mutual.

I wondered the extent to which RBH is facing an impossible task, with far too much to do with the rents allowed and the money provided. Are the Tories, yet again, bashing an organisation which is performing badly because it does not have the necessary resources? I don't suppose that private landlords are making a better fist of it. Would we have done better to have let the Council Housing Departments of old get on with it?

I thought to take a look at the accounts, but I have not been able to find any, not like the National Trust where they are only a few clicks away - but then, that is a much bigger operation where a fancier website is to be expected. While at reference 2, I was only able to turn up accessible summaries, such as that to be found at reference 3, from where the snap above is taken. An account which does not balance in the way favoured by accountants...

PS 1: I continue to fret about the way that Microsoft provide public access to the few files that I want to make public, according to rules which I find quite impenetrable and quite incomprehensible, this despite near fifty years in IT. Hopefully I have not opened the stable door.

PS 2: and I am reminded of the days when BH and I used to live in a bedsit in north London where we provided our own heating with an Aladdin paraffin stove which, inter alia, pumped a good deal of water into the room, resulting in large amounts of black mould in and on the wallpaper behind the wardrobe. Perhaps it is just as well that we were only there for nine months or so. The sort of stove involved is snapped at reference 4. Must have been a standard item, as I have a memory of coming across a store room full of them somewhere in the OPCS empire back in the 1970's. Perhaps at the time of the three day week.

References

Reference 1: Gove cuts housing association’s £1mn funding after Awaab Ishak death: Housing minister withholds money after inquest finds mould problem contributed to toddler’s fate - George Hammond, Financial Times - 2022.

Reference 2: https://www.rbh.org.uk/. Rochdale Boroughwide Housing. 

Reference 3: https://1drv.ms/b/s!AvPvDT7vzzpQh-s7pfKkFDSqAly2GQ?e=FXsr7p. An accessible report on their activity.

Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/06/derby-action.html.