 |
| Abbreviation | RBH |
|---|---|
| Formation | 2012 |
| Purpose | Social housing in England |
| Location | |
Chief Executive | position vacant |
| Website | rbh.org.uk |
Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) is a social housing provider established in 2012 to receive the transfer of housing stock from Rochdale Borough Council in Greater Manchester, England. It has a subsidiary, RBH (Design and Build) Limited. It owns and manages about 12,700 properties. In March 2020, it employed 545 full time equivalent staff.[ citation needed ]
RBH has a charitable development subsidiary, Brighter Horizons, which in 2009 was allocated £300,000 from the Homes and Communities Agency to purchase five former local authority houses which it then brought up to Decent Homes Standard. [1]
In 2017, the In-Depth Assessment carried out by the Homes and Communities Agency upgraded it to the highest governance rating and it remained on the second-highest viability rating. [2]
In 2019, the top five executives were to receive a collective salary increase of £158,000 over the next three years, to be funded through 'efficiency savings'. There were complaints from councillors, but they had no power to intervene. [3]
It plans to build 496 housing units between 2021 and 2026. They will be allocated between social or affordable rent, supported housing, shared ownership and rent to buy. [4] [ needs update ] RBH plans to demolish some blocks of flats in the town and replace them with new housing of various types. [5]
It launched its own BAME employee network group for the 2021 National Inclusion Week. [6]
In December 2020 Awaab Ishak, a two year-old child, died in a flat owned by the company. In 2022, following legal action by the family, a coroner ruled that the respiratory condition that caused the child's death was caused by prolonged exposure to toxic black mould in the flat. [7] [8] [9]
His father had complained to RBH about the mould in 2017 and was told to paint over it. [7] Following the coroner's verdict, RBH's chief executive Gareth Swarbrick said that he was "truly devastated about Awaab's death and the things we got wrong. We didn't recognise the level of risk to a little boy's health from the mould in the family's home. We allowed a legal disrepair process, widely used in the housing sector, to get in the way of promptly tackling the mould." [9]
Chris Clarkson, the local MP, called the company "modern day slum lords". He said he had been sent photographs from a RBH-owned house in Middleton "caked in black mould and rising damp", showing that the conditions seen in Ishak's home were "not an isolated incident". [10]
The Housing Ombudsman, Richard Blakeway, is exercising his powers to carry out a further investigation to see if this complaint is indicative of wider failure within RBH. [11]
On 19 November 2022, the board of RBH sacked Swarbrick over the failure to protect Ishak. [12]
Mold health issues refer to the harmful health effects of moulds and their mycotoxins. However, recent research has shown these adverse health effects are caused not exclusively by molds, but also other microbial agents and biotoxins associated with dampness, mold, and water-damaged buildings, such as gram-negative bacteria that produce endotoxins, as well as actinomycetes and their associated exotoxins. Approximately 47% of houses in the United States have substantial levels of mold, with over 85% of commercial and office buildings found to have water damage predictive of mold. As many as 21% of asthma cases may result from exposure to mold. Substantial and statistically significant increases in the risks of both respiratory infections and bronchitis have been associated with dampness in homes and the resulting mold.
A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into the manner or cause of death. The official may also investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within the coroner's jurisdiction.
Middleton is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England, on the River Irk 5 miles (8.0 km) southwest of Rochdale and 5 miles (8.0 km) northeast of Manchester. Middleton had a population of 42,972 at the 2011 Census. It lies on the northern edge of Manchester, with Blackley to the south and Moston to the south east.
Heywood is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England, in the historic county of Lancashire. It had a population of 28,205 at the 2011 Census. The town lies on the south bank of the River Roch, 2 miles (3.2 km) east of Bury, 4 miles (6.4 km) southwest of Rochdale, and 8 miles (12.9 km) north of Manchester. Middleton lies to the south, whilst to the north is the Cheesden Valley, open moorland, and the Pennines. Heywood's nickname is Monkey Town.
Heywood and Middleton is a constituency in Greater Manchester represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Chris Clarkson of the Conservative Party.
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Mark Warwick Fordham Speight was an English television presenter and host of children's art programme SMart. Speight was born in Seisdon, Staffordshire, and left school at 16 to become a cartoonist. He took a degree in commercial and graphic art and, while working in television set construction, heard of auditions for a new children's art programme. Speight was successful in his audition and became one of the first presenters of SMart, working on it for 14 years.
The open verdict is an option open to a coroner's jury at an inquest in the legal system of England and Wales. The verdict means the jury confirms the death is suspicious, but is unable to reach any other verdicts open to them. Mortality studies consider it likely that the majority of open verdicts are recorded in cases of suicide where the intent of the deceased could not be proved, although the verdict is recorded in many other circumstances.
Langley is an suburb near Middleton, Greater Manchester, England, 4.4 miles (7.1 km) southwest of Rochdale and 5.5 miles (8.9 km) northeast of Manchester city centre.
Deaths in custody, including police and prison custody, are subject to great concern for a number of reasons, including the intrinsically vulnerable nature of some of those in custody, and the power imbalance inherent in the situation. Deaths in custody in England and Wales are looked at by inquests, and when it is possible that the state failed to protect the deceased's life are scrutinised using the 'right to life'.
Rochdale was, from 1856 to 1974, a local government district coterminate with the town of Rochdale in the northwest of England.
Gareth Wyn Williams was a Welsh mathematician and Junior Analyst for GCHQ seconded to the Secret Intelligence Service who was found dead in suspicious circumstances at a Security Service safe house flat in Pimlico, London, on 23 August 2010. The inquest found that his death was "unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated." A subsequent Metropolitan Police re-investigation concluded that Williams's death was "probably an accident".
West Suffolk Hospital is a small district general hospital in Bury St Edmunds, England. It is managed by the West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust.
Inquest Charitable Trust is a charity concerned with state related deaths in England and Wales. It was founded in 1981. Inquest provides support on state-related deaths, including deaths in custody and their investigation, to bereaved people, lawyers, advice and support agencies, the media and parliamentarians. Their policy, parliamentary, campaigning and media work is grounded in the day-to-day experience of working with bereaved people.
The Shirley Towers Fire occurred in a tower block on 6 April 2010 in Southampton, Hampshire, England. Two firefighters were killed when a fire developed and spread from the 9th floor. The investigations and inquiries following the fire led to changes in fire safety rules nationally, particularly the regulations around electrical wiring.
Christopher Mark Clarkson is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Heywood & Middleton since the 2019 general election. Prior to entering Parliament, Clarkson was a Salford City Councilor for Worsley.
Shukri Yahye-Abdi drowned in the River Irwell, England, on 27 June 2019. Aged 12, she was a refugee from Somalia who had lived in a refugee camp in Kenya until moving to England in 2017. She was with pupils from her school, Broad Oak High School, at the time of her death. Subsequent to her death, police reported there were no suspicious circumstances; however, Abdi's mother reported conflicting information and said that she had been complaining to her daughter's school about incidents of bullying for over a year.
Archie Battersbee, a British boy, was the subject of several court hearings between April and August 2022, regarding whether or not to withdraw his life support, after he was found unconscious and subsequently considered to have suffered brainstem death. The courts ruled in favour of Barts Health NHS Trust, and against his parents, and allowed his life support to be withdrawn.
Awaab Ishak, a two-year old child living in a one-bedroom flat at the Ilminster block on Rochdale's Freehold estate, died in December 2020 as a result of a severe respiratory condition. In 2022, a coroner at Rochdale coroner's court ruled that this was caused by prolonged exposure to black mould in his home which had "inadequate ventilation and was not equipped for normal day-to-day living activities which led to excess damp and condensation". Awaab's death led to a change in the law, known as "Awaab's Law".
The Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which introduced new measures to improve the standards, safety and operation of social housing. The bill was introduced in the House of Lords on 8 June 2022 and received royal assent on 20 July 2023.