By Antonia Charlesworth Stack
You can also read this article on The Lead here

Even if Jade’s children’s bedrooms weren’t riddled with black mould she still wouldn’t want them climbing up and down the stairs to get to them. Her sodden carpets have all been ripped up and sent to the tip and when she stands on the wet steps she says she can feel them buckle. 

“The stairs are falling apart,” she says. “They don’t feel safe at all.” 

At the moment her family of five are all confined to living in one room of her house in Marton. On Jade’s living room floor there are mattresses for her, her mum, her 15-year-old sister and one-year-old son. A small bed for her six-year-old daughter, who has Down’s Syndrome and had heart surgery in September, is one of the few sticks of furniture in the house that hasn’t been claimed by the rampant black mould that has taken over her home.

“I’ve been through three cots for the baby,” says the 33 year old. “My sofa was soaking wet so I had to throw it out.”

Jade and her mum Angela have been trying to keep the mould in their four bedroom home at bay for months.

“When a big storm came in October-November time that must have been when it damaged the roof,” she says. “Then come January the mould started appearing. We were scrubbing it but it wasn’t budging. No matter how much we washed it, it just kept coming back.”

A coordinated effort of cleaning with bleach and mould spray and emptying endless boxes of salt into corners to absorb the damp did little to stop its spread.

“It’s the whole house. We’re keeping everything in suitcases and plastic boxes to try and preserve clothes. It’s in my kitchen cupboards – I’m wiping them out a ridiculous amount but my food is constantly going mouldy. I’ve bought plastic tubs to store cereal which otherwise gets mouldy straight away. I bought a bread bin but if I buy a loaf it still turns mouldy in a day.

“Sometimes I’ve gone days without eating so that the kids can. I’m throwing so much away and having to rely on tins. If I had the funds I’d be out of here today. I’ve even said to my mum, let’s just live in the bloody car.”  

Jade and Angela’s battle against black mould is one they have been fighting, until now, in silence. It’s taken its toll on their physical health – the family are often sick with coughs and colds – and their mental health too.

“My mum won’t go out. The mould has ripped through her immune system and she feels so embarrassed. None of my friends know. I’m embarrassed to say this is how I’m living. They ask to come round to see us and how many more excuses can I make?”

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.