An industry round table held this week by Housing Management & Maintenance brought experts on tackling damp, mould and moisture in social housing together with social housing providers, associations and suppliers, to discuss practical approaches and solutions for compliance with Awaab’s Law.
With Awaab’s Law, the first part of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act having been brought into force in October 2025, we reconvened several of the delegates from the Building Insights LIVE round table we held a year ago, which looked at the initial likely impacts of the Act. Now, we were able to share real world experience of compliance strategies, and review how social housing providers were tackling the new timescales for responding to hazards, but also solutions and barriers for prevention, as well as progress on the group’s 2025 recommendations.
This round table was sponsored by Tarmac, Cornerstone Management Services, and Ubbink, who all posed questions and solutions to the group from their different perspectives. Recommendations from 2025’s event which were assessed included the application and standardisation of property data, what ‘making properties safe’ means in practice, and the important role of tenant consultation and trust-building.
James Parker, event chair and editor of Housing Management & Maintenance magazine commented:
“This was an important chance to review how the sector was tackling one of the most important safety challenges in social housing, catalysed by the tragic death of Awaab Ishak in December 2020. Our delegates discussed approaches to responding to hazards and engaging tenants, but also how sensible, straightforward construction solutions exist to prevent moisture issues in the first place. They also revealed that progress was patchy, despite the sector having had many months to prepare for Awaab’s Law, and that sharing of good practice across different providers was few and far between.
“Our event was one example of how this sharing of information could be done openly and collaboratively, to help the sector work with both the construction supply chain and tenants to avoid many of the problems in future. A key outcome was that the group should come together again in 2027 and potentially collate research on healthy homes to provide the sector with usable examples of what works.”
The full list of attendees was as follows:
Hony Premlal Chair, WISH & Interim CEO, Causeway Irish Housing Association
Dr Douglas Booker Lecturer in Indoor Air, University of Leeds
Dr Hector Altamirano-Medina Academic Director, UK Centre for Moisture in Buildings
Andrew Burke Deputy Secretary, National Housing Maintenance Forum
Sarah Garry Chief Executive, Property Care Association
Dale Holroyd Commercial Director, ZapCarbon (Healthy Homes Department)
Holly Hickin Barrister, Trinity Chambers
Paul Smith Managing Director, Foundations UK
Andrew Cameron-Smith Communications Director, Healthy Homes Hub
Naomi Sadler Director, SEES (Sadler Energy & Environmental Services)
Martin Hancock Head of Repairs and Estate Services, Clarion Housing Group