A leading Labour politician has called on the next government to put public investment in housing on an equal footing to health – to address inequality and drive-up standards in the social and private rented sectors.

Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, says the tragic death of Awaab Ishak in a Rochdale housing association property riddled with damp and mould should serve as “a ‘Cathy Come Home’ moment” for the region and the country.

In an exclusive interview for the April edition of Housing Quality Magazine (HQM), out next week, Andy Burnham said: “The shockwaves [over Awaab’s death] are still reverberating around Greater Manchester. But when I look at what’s going on in the national media, particularly ITV’s pretty determined focus on this issue of housing standards in the social and private rented sectors, it feels finally that it’s become a national political issue, which is great, I think, and not before time.

“I kind of feel that what happened with the death of Awaab is almost our ‘Cathy Come Home’ moment. I think it’s deeply sad and tragic that it took this to catapult housing standards to the top of the political agenda. But now that it has done that, I think it’s incumbent on everybody to feel the shockwaves and then turn the concern into action.”

Burnham says he would like to see housing added to Labour’s ‘five missions’ set out by Keir Starmer in February.

“To the five missions that the party has set out, I would like to add a sixth. And in some ways, it’s almost the foundation mission, which is housing as a human right in UK law. And not just housing, good housing, safe housing,” he explained.

“If you want people in this country to have a good life, good health, kids to have a good education and a good start in life, everyone has to have a decent home, don’t they? It’s the foundation for everything.”

Burnham doesn’t hold back in his criticism of current standards – and the behaviour of some landlords – in both the social and private rented sectors.

“How do you build a healthier nation in a situation where millions of people are living in homes that are physically unsuitable or tenancies that are way too insecure, or where there’s a dysfunctional relationship with the landlord and the landlord is bullying them or doing something else to damage people’s mental health?,” he said.

“I would say good housing should be enshrined in UK law, and actually, if it was enshrined in UK law that everybody has a safe home on a reasonably secure basis, I think we’d save so much public money in so many other ways. Other investments we make in the health service, in education or the benefits system will be better spent rather than constantly dealing with crisis situations.”

Burnham says radical solutions are required to fix the country’s housing issues. New research published by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) suggests that poor quality housing costs the NHS £1.4 billion a year.

“If you’re going to do something serious about inequality…you have to do something utterly radical about housing if you are to change things. In the queue of prioritisation for public spending, it has to be first alongside health – almost equal priority.

“I’ve seen in my time in politics, under all governments of all colours, this kind of mantra around election times that ‘we’ll protect the NHS’ or will ‘we’ll prioritise the NHS for investment’. I’m not going to argue against that. But people should talk about housing in the same breath. If you’re damaging health in people’s homes, which is what is happening in millions of homes across our country, what hope is there for the health service?”

On the current state of social housing and the inadequacies of some social landlords, Burnham says he has a good relationship with the Greater Manchester housing providers but takes issue with some of the behaviour he sees.

“I’ve got a lot of time for a lot of social landlords but there’s something about culture here, and there’s something about ways of working that have not gone in the right direction,” he said.

“I think there is an issue of excessive pay. Just let me be honest about that. There is also an issue of excluding elected representatives and a pushing away of the scrutiny and accountability that comes with that. That is not a healthy thing at all.

“I wouldn’t want to tar everyone with the same brush, but I think to some extent or another, all organisations have got elements of these issues that they need to address, maybe some less than others.

“And the risk is you get an organisation that’s in a bit of a silo, it has a lot of – let’s say – middle income professional people and can develop quite a derogatory attitude to some of the people who are their residents. And at its worst, it’s not just derogatory, it can be discriminatory.

“We saw that, I think, with the Ombudsman’s findings [into the Awaab Ishak case]. I’m never somebody who wants to have a downer on a whole sector or whole group of people.

“However, is there poor practice within the social landlord sector? Definitely. Is there excessive pay within the social landlord sector? Definitely. Is there an unhealthy culture in parts of it? Well, yes to that as well.”

You can read the full interview with Andy Burnham in the April edition of HQM, out on Thursday, 13^th April.