What else can I do? A tenant's struggle for a safe place to live

erianne Wilson and her son have been taking it in turns to sleep on the sofa in their crammed living room since 2022, when a leak caused major damage to their two-bedroom home in west London.

- Jessica Murray

For years, they have battled with mouldy ceilings, walls and floorboards, sodden wallpaper, collapsed ceilings and buckets on the floor. Her 20-year-old son has been unable to sleep in his damp bedroom, with all of his belongings piled up in boxes around the flat.

"I'm really tired now. This has been going on for so long," said Wilson. "What else can I do? We're living in this. I'm paying the rent, I work full-time and everything is paid by me, so why am I paying to live in such conditions?

"I'm worried for the safety of my son and for me with the mould - the floorboards are soaking wet, that is a hazard in itself, and they just seem to dismiss it."

She is awaiting the results of blood tests to see if she and her son have been affected by the mould in the home, and said her son is "constantly coughing".

Wilson is one of thousands of social housing tenants across the country who have struggled with substandard living conditions.

She has filed multiple complaints, and taken her problems to the Housing Ombudsman Service, which has reported a 474% increase in complaints about poor living conditions since 2019-20.

Richard Blakeway, the housing ombudsman, has said the level of anger over poor quality housing has reached such a point that it risks broader social tension.