Housing secretary Michael Gove has told three councils he will take a ‘personal interest' in how they improve following findings of severe maladministration by the Housing Ombudsman.

Mr Gove wrote to the chief executives of Manchester City Council, Stevenage BC and Newham LBC.

The ombudsman had made three findings of severe maladministration after Manchester City Council let a home ‘riddled with damp and mould' to a family with young children and took 67 weeks to repair a leaking roof.

Mr Gove told Manchester's chief executive, Joanne Roney, that the failure was ‘unacceptable', and said the ‘tragic death of Awaab Ishak has shown us that we must be especially vigilant when it comes to protecting children and vulnerable people'.

In the letter to Stevenage's chief executive Matt Partridge, Mr Gove said the council had started to improve its complaint handling after its failure to fix a disabled resident's door entry system left the ambulance service unable to attend to the resident.

However, the housing secretary told Mr Partridge that the council must consider what more it could do to improve.

Newham council's chief executive, Colin Ansell, received a letter over the authority's failure to respond adequately to a resident's damp and mould issue for more than three years.

Mr Gove said that on top of his ‘personal interest' in Newham's improvements, a meeting would be arranged between the local authority and housing minister Felicity Buchan to discuss the 'unacceptable' failings.

Manchester, Stevenage and Newham councils all issued learning statements in response to the Housing Ombudsman's severe maladminstration findings.