Social tenants say poor housing is bad for their health

"My chest has felt heavy this whole week... not just because of the physical strain but, the emotional strain."

Vanessa Wills says the history of ceiling leaks in her east London flat has been difficult to deal with on top of her health condition, sickle cell anaemia.

At night, she says, she has to lay out containers to catch water, and the fear they will overflow stops her sleeping.

"It's become a traumatic event having a leak now, I literally get anxiety and sometimes even palpitations.

"That's how bad it's become, because you start hearing a drip, you get paranoid."

Leaks have been a problem for six of the 12 years she has lived here as a social housing tenant in the borough of Tower Hamlets, she says.

When the BBC visited Vanessa's flat in 2021, water was coming through the ceiling. She says the condition of the flat has not improved since.

She believes the ongoing strain of living in the property has been bad for her health.

Her landlord, Tower Hamlets Community Housing, said the recent leak was caused by a faulty boiler in the flat above and that the flat had now been redecorated.

According to a report from University College London's Institute of Health Equity, Vanessa's situation is commonplace across the capital due to a shortage of good quality, affordable housing, an "unacceptable state of affairs", it said.

Author Prof Sir Michael Marmot found children are particularly badly affected by living in poor housing.

Andi Williams, a mother living with her four children in social housing in Westminster, says leaks have caused the ceiling to fall down in her bedroom, the living room and her son's bedroom.

The leaks, damp and mould have taken their toll on "every aspect of their lives", she says. Her young son has been particularly badly affected, she said.

"When the ceiling collapsed, even though there was a lot of mould in there it was hard for him to understand. You can't sleep in there, it's not safe.

"There's no joy, there's no happiness, there's just worry, constant worry all the time."

Her daughter Charn said: "It's emotionally exhausting, it's mentally exhausting. My siblings, it affects them when they have to go to school because they're up late having to move things around the flat. Their homework, their attendance gets affected."

Westminster City Council said it had "always tried to make repairs to the property as quickly as possible", and it had offered Ms Williams and her family permanent alternative accommodation nearby.

However, Ms Williams said the property offered was not suitable for her family.

The UCL report calls on the government, "to accelerate, rapidly, the increase in the supply of good quality social housing, which offers long-term security at an affordable cost".

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said its Social Housing Regulation Bill, soon to become law, would ensure "tenants are heard and their issues dealt with quickly and fairly."

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