Lawyers and environmental health campaigners are mourning the death of Professor David Ormandy, who died on 11 April 2024 after a long period of illness.

A qualified public health inspector and founder of the Public Health Advisory Service at Shelter, Professor Ormandy was known for his groundbreaking work linking poor housing with poor health. This included developing a methodology to assess the cost to the NHS of inadequate housing.

Professor Ormandy gave expert evidence in many leading cases on health and housing, in particular on using public health legislation to hold landlords accountable for homes that were making their tenants unwell.

He was a professor and visiting academic at Warwick Law School, and a long-standing contributor to Legal Action and its predecessor, the LAG Bulletin, beginning in the mid-1970s; his most recent article was published just days before his death. His final piece for Legal Action set out what he saw as weaknesses in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities’ consultation over so-called Awaab’s Law. It was a subject close to his heart.

Since 1980s, Professor Ormandy had been raising concerns that housing officers were wrongly blaming tenants’ behaviour for condensation and mould, as happened to the family of Awaab Ishak, the toddler who died followed prolonged exposure to damp in his home.

In a blog post for the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, vice-chair Dr Stephen Battersby paid tribute to Professor Ormandy, saying: ‘His death leaves a huge void professionally and personally and a legacy that will be hard to follow.’