It’s difficult for her to leave the house too. She currently has no buggy for her son after his last one became covered in mould from sitting in her hallway. Her children’s toys have all met the same fate. Brand new ones bought at Christmas have had to go in the bin. Her children currently have one toy each – a plastic steering wheel bought from a charity shop for £2.50 for her son, and her daughter has a dolls house that the family found on the street and fixed up.
“I don’t know what to do. I’m embarrassed and I don’t know where to turn. My mental health has taken a hit because I think, how am I allowing my kids to live like this? I never thought I would but there’s nothing I can do.”
It's time for the government to act
Though she’s often felt it, Jade is not alone in her battle with her damp home. In February, analysis of the English Housing Survey by the Institute of Health Equity and Friends of the Earth revealed almost 10m households are living in cold, damp or poorly insulated homes. Around 11 per cent of houses in the private rented sector have damp problems compared with 4 per cent in the social-rented sector and 2 per cent of owner-occupied homes.
But in Blackpool the problem is much worse. Following a request from the government, Blackpool Council provided figures in September that revealed every one of the town’s 18,000 houses in the private rented sector has a damp and mould problem. One in four were classed as a category 1, a serious threat to health and safety. In the most densely populated areas, this applies to 70 per cent of privately rented properties.
Blackpool Council acknowledges that failed private rented housing creates the conditions for the town having the lowest life expectancy in England. It says that the current measure of suitability in the private rented sector – the Housing Health and Safety Rating System – “is not sufficient to ensure that people renting privately have homes that are fit for purpose”.
“Everyone should be entitled to a decent home in the 21st century. Reforms are long overdue and it is now time for the government to act,” it says.
In January 2023 the council introduced an enforcement team to inspect private rented properties in the Blackpool’s most deprived areas. Using £1.2m using of levelling up funding it called on legislative powers to drive up standards where accommodation has fallen into decay. Last month the council announced a further £90m of levelling up funding had been secured to tackle housing in deprived inner areas of the town, some of which it said would be used to acquire and improve existing housing, though that’s unlikely to include Jade’s former council house in Marton.
Living in a mouldy home can cause or exacerbate respiratory problems including infections, allergies or asthma and can affect the immune system. Babies, children and older people are the most vulnerable to it, along with people with existing health problems. Long-term exposure can be fatal.
In 2020 two-year-old Awaab Ishak died as a direct result of exposure to black mould in the flat he lived in in Rochdale. The coroner said his death was a “defining moment” for the housing sector in terms of “increasing knowledge, increasing awareness and a deepening of understanding surrounding the issue of damp and mould”.
Last year, Awaab’s Law was introduced – requiring landlords to investigate and fix reported health hazards within specified timeframes.
Housing charity Shelter says the private rented sector is broken and is applying pressure on the government to pass a strong, amended, Renters Reform Bill into law urgently. Changes such as extending a decent homes standard to properties in the private rented sector, and scrapping section 21 no fault evictions, it says would “deliver the lasting change needed” and “give renters the security and rights they deserve”.
Jade pays £800 a month for her privately rented house. In February, she says, her landlord increased the cost from £625 without notice. Housing charities and Blackpool Council advise tenants experiencing damp and mould that their first port of call should be their landlord but Jade says requests to hers to tackle the problems at the property have resulted in little action.