As part of the Homes for Us Alliance: a coalition of grassroots organisations, charities, and tenants unions who have come together to fight for more and better social housing, Disability Rights UK has written a letter to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove. The open letter, signed by ACORN the Union, Advice for Renters, Breathe: Community Organising for Climate Justice, Inclusion London, London Renters Union, Medact, New Economics Foundation, The Runnymede Trust and The Social Housing Action Campaign (SHAC) was written in the wake of the coroner's report into the death of Awaab Ishak.
Together we have written to the Secretary of State to ask how the Government will prevent further deaths resulting from structural discrimination across the social housing sector. We demand that the Minister meets to:
- Address what further steps beyond the Social Housing (Regulation) Bill the Government plans to take to improve the culture within social landlords’ organisations
- How the Government plans to push up standards and supply
- Clarify what steps he will take to ensure the proper enforcement of standards across the housing system
- Outline what steps his department is taking to ensure residents and tenants can raise systemic concerns about landlord malpractice directly with the Regulator
The full letter is available from the downloads section below.
