By Angela Goodhand, Head of Air Quality, BWB Consulting
As of this week, Awaab’s Law has officially come into effect, a vital piece of legislation inspired by the tragic death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak, who died in December 2020 from respiratory failure caused by prolonged mould exposure in his family’s social housing in Rochdale.
For those managing housing stock, including local authorities, housing associations, and ALMOs, this marks a major operational shift. This new law requires social landlords to investigate reports of damp and mould within 10 working days, and where significant hazards are identified, to begin safety work within a further 5 working days, ensuring that no tenant’s health is put at risk by poor housing conditions.
For me, this law reinforces something that should have always been standard practice – that landlords are responsible for the health and safety of the people living in their homes. But with approximately 88,000 social housing properties at significant risk from damp and mould, meeting these timeframes requires more than good intentions—it requires the right systems and expertise in place.
The question now is how landlords can meet these new standards in practice, and the answer starts with ventilation.
The Ventilation Paradox We Keep Seeing
Ventilation is at the heart of good indoor air quality. Yet as homes become more energy-efficient and airtight, I’m seeing an unintended rise in damp and mould problems, especially where ventilation standards aren’t properly met. These issues can develop in both older housing stock and newly upgraded or retrofitted homes, where airflow has been reduced without appropriate mitigation.
The statistics tell the story: only 1.9% of social housing properties have mechanical ventilation installed and in use. When research programmes have deployed monitors, like the 200-home study by Torus Housing Group, they’ve revealed concerning levels of humidity, temperature fluctuations, and pollutants that residents were living with every day.
That’s why it’s so important that landlords, developers, and housing managers understand how effective ventilation systems should work—not just how to install them, but how to maintain and monitor them so that residents stay healthy and safe.
How BWB Air Quality Consultants Can Help
As air quality consultants, we play a role throughout the entire life cycle of a building:
During Design
We assess ventilation strategies, develop indoor air quality plans in accordance with BREEAM and WELL Building Standard, and recommend materials and layouts that prevent condensation and mould from forming in the first place. This includes condensation risk assessments and ensuring compliance with PAS 2035 for retrofits and Approved Document F for new builds.
Getting it right at the design stage is far cheaper than fixing problems later.
During Construction
We work with your construction teams to verify installations, assess airtightness test air movement and extraction rates, and ensure that what was designed is actually being built to standard. Even the best ventilation design can fail if poorly installed.
During Operation
This is where we can make the biggest difference for Awaab’s Law compliance. We can deploy environmental monitoring systems to track humidity and indoor pollutants in real-time, diagnose damp or odour complaints with objective data, and provide the evidence landlords need to act within Awaab’s Law timeframes.
The shift from subjective complaints to objective data transforms the conversation entirely—it protects both landlords and tenants by providing clear evidence of what’s happening in a property before problems become severe.
Why This Matters for Your Organisation
I understand that local authorities, housing associations, and ALMOs are working with constrained budgets, but consider this:
Prevention is cheaper than remediation. Early detection and intervention costs a fraction of what you’ll spend replacing plaster, insulation, or structural components damaged by persistent damp.
Legal protection matters. Meeting Awaab’s Law timeframes protects you from enforcement action, compensation claims, and reputational damage that can far exceed the cost of proper monitoring systems.
Your tenants notice. When 32% of social housing tenants report dissatisfaction with how landlords handle complaints, homes with good air quality and responsive maintenance become a differentiator.
Future regulations are coming. Awaab’s Law is being phased in gradually, with additional hazards being added in 2026-2027. Building air quality capability now positions you to adapt as requirements expand.
Building Healthier Homes Together
Awaab’s Law is more than a legal requirement—it’s a reminder of our shared responsibility to create healthy, safe, and dignified living spaces. The good news is that with the right expertise embedded throughout your building lifecycle, compliance becomes prevention rather than crisis management.
By combining data, good design, and education, we can help landlords and developers create homes that stay dry, healthy, and safe for decades to come. The introduction of Awaab’s Law coincides with unprecedented investment in social housing decarbonisation and retrofit—this is our opportunity to get it right.
If you’d like to learn more about how we can support your compliance with Awaab’s Law through design review, construction oversight, or operational monitoring, please feel free to get in touch. I’d be happy to discuss how we can help you create truly healthy places.