Protesters have picketed the Affordable Housing Awards at Old Trafford. It comes a year after the event was cancelled in the wake of the Awaab Ishak scandal, as uncovered by the M.E.N.

Demonstrators from the Greater Manchester Tenants Union (GMTU) and Social Housing Action Campaign (SHAC) picketed the entrance to The Point at Emirates Old Trafford, home of Lancashire cricket club, where the event was taking place on Friday (November 17). As attendees entered the awards, a group of 30-40 people held placards aloft and shouted ‘shame’.

The protest was briefly interrupted when eggs were hurled from the main road towards the demonstration, but no-one was hit by the projectiles. Organisers said they called the protest to highlight the conditions families like Awaab’s still have to live in.

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“SHAC pickets the housing awards every year, and last year we got it cancelled because we organised a petition online with 45,000 signatures to say it should be cancelled after the coroner’s report into Awaab Ishak’s death [was released],” organiser Suzanne Muna told the M.E.N. “That tells the story of our broken housing system.

“The tenants are secondary and do not matter. Awaab’s parents had tried to get repairs done. It was not a sudden leak. It was years and years of inaction.”

Awaab Ishak died aged just two following a continuous cough and couldn't breathe through his nose in the final weeks of his life at a 'disgusting' flat with damp and mould, his inquest heard

GMTU supported the protest, with its own organiser, Dan Isaac, saying in his campaigning, he has visited properties that he couldn’t stand to be in for more than half an hour, because mould made him ‘feel sick’, the 34-year-old from Moss Side said.

His colleague, Isaac Rose, 31, added: “I think we see so often so many bad cases in social housing across Greater Manchester. I work in Hulme and there are always bad properties there.

“[Housing providers] are not all the same but it does feel like those in older stock are not being prioritised, and providers are moving to rent-to-buy and affordable shared ownership that’s not at social rent levels. It seems like they push repairs back.”

Awaab Ishak's father Faisal Abdhullah speaks to Ste Topping of the M.E.N.

This week, in an exclusive interview with the Evening News, Awaab Ishak’s parents Faisal Abdullah and Aisha Amin said they still think ‘what if’ when they look at coverage of the two-year-old’s passing.

The youngster died at his home on the Freehold Estate in Rochdale after prolonged exposure to damp and mould, a damning coroner's report previously found.

"It makes me - well, it makes us as a family - actually think back and ask the question, 'what if actually Awaab was still alive?',” said Faisal, speaking via an interpreter. "So [we're] wishing that Awaab would be alive rather than Awaab being dead.

One protester with a banner that says 'you have gold, we have mould'

“That's the feeling, when we see things on Facebook and social media, this is the feeling that we have and what we think."

Since the release of the coronial report, Awaab’s Law has been passed, which forces social landlords to fix damp and mould within strict time limits.