On Wednesday 4th February 2026, Trinity Social Housing barrister, Holly Hickin, took part in a round table discussion focussing on the progress made on Awaab’s Law and The Social Housing Act since their implementation in October 2025.
Hosted by netMAGmedia, the Housing Management & Maintenance round table, titled “Reviewing Progress on Awaab’s Law & The Social Housing Act”, brought together a mix of social housing professionals, supply chain representatives, and industry bodies, to give insights into how regulated social landlords (RSLs) have risen to the challenges of Awaab’s Law and The Social Housing Act.
Discussions centred around how much the sector has had to pivot to upgrade its reporting mechanisms, safety measures and staffing, new accountability, and other key issues revealed since October.
Commenting on the event, James Parker, event chair and editor of Housing Management & Maintenance magazine said:
“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.”
Holly added:
"The roundtable discussion was very insightful, and it was invaluable to hear first hand from industry experts how Awaab’s Law has significantly impacted other sectors, not just the legal sector.
Unanimously, it was agreed that there is a long way to go in tackling damp and mould within social housing, but there was common ground between the delegates that knowledge as to the causes of damp and mould and cross-industry parties working together to tackle the problems will go some way in helping.
It was also interesting to hear about how different registered social landlords are practically approaching the implementation of Awaab’s Law and what steps are being taken in responding to reports and any claims relating to breaches of the same."