While tenants suffered and a family grieved, housing association bosses raked in huge pay rises
Bosses at the housing association responsible for a Rochdale estate plagued with damp and mould have enjoyed 'obscene' pay rises while families have been complaining about conditions. Rochdale Boroughwide Housing hit out at 'historic under investment' in the sector when a Manchester Evening News investigation exposed the conditions tenants had been living in on the Freehold estate.
The post-mortem linking Awaab's death to the damp and mould at his home was made public at a pre-inquest review in June this year, with pathologist Dr Philip Lumb listing Awaab's cause of death as acute airway edema and severe granulosis bronchitis due to environmental lung exposure. According to the Office of National Statistics , the average hourly pay for residents across the borough in 2021 was £12.83, which works out at around £25,000 a year. But those numbers are higher than the reality for many living at RBH's homes - including the Freehold estate.
Inside Housing reported that he was unsuccessful following the first round of interviews for the role. But after the housing association failed to make a permanent appointment in 2007, Mr Swarbrick was eventually named RBH's permanent chief executive in November 2008. Her total pay package increased from £113,000 in 2019-20, to £124,000 in 2020-21 and £127,000 in 2021-22. Clare Tostevin, RBH's director of growth, also saw her combined pay package rise from £108,000 in 2019-20, to £121,000 in 2020-21 and £126,000 in 2021-22.
According to RBH, the cost of Mr Swarbrick's salary as chief executive worked out at £12.53 per each of its properties in 2021-22, while total remuneration for its executives worked out at £43.57 per property. RBH declined to say whether its executives have received another pay increase in the current 2022-23 financial year when asked by the M.E.N.
RBH highlights that pay for its executives increased after being 'independently benchmarked' in 2018 and moved 'in line with the median level for similar sized' housing associations. Kate Henderson, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, told the M.E.N. : “The pay of housing association chief executives is decided independently by their boards as happens for all charity organisations.
"They don’t have to respond to us, they don’t have to listen to the public.” Conservative Jane Howard added: “RBH is a mutual, it’s supposed to put tenants at its heart and all profits are supposed to be reinvested in everything they do - not fat cat pay rises for the top five brass.” One health visitor even raised safeguarding concerns about the state of the property in a letter from July 2020, just five months before Awaab's death, the court heard. Following Awaab's death, Greater Manchester Police urged Rochdale Council to visit the property, with inspectors finding 'category one' extreme harm at the home due to damp.
The M.E.N. asked RBH for a statement about the recent pay rises its executives received. It also submitted a series of questions to the four high earners who remain at RBH - Mr Swarbrick, Ms Hallard, Ms Tostevin and Ms Khan - about the damp and mould on Freehold and what work was being done to rectify the issue, including whether the promise of inspecting all 376 homes was being fulfilled.
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