Cold and mouldy home ‘making boy aged 5 sick

Desperate mum in plea over house she keeps son away from as much as possible

- By CHARLOTTE HALL

TOMMY is obsessed with hotwheels.

His room is full of wildly spiralling racetracks.

Unfortunately, the five-year-old doesn't get to play with them as often as he'd like. His mum, Maisie, tries to keep him out of the house as much as possible because she's worried the damp, cold and mould in their home is making him sick.

Tommy and Maisie, whose names have been changed to protect their identities, are in temporary accommodation. Maisie, a 26-year-old mum from Oldham, says she was left homeless after her landlord decided to up her rent by almost £400 a month - from £600 to just under a thousand.

After almost a year bouncing around hotels and sleeping on family members' sofas, the young mum was 'so relieved' when Oldham council was finally able to offer her somewhere to stay.

"I had high hopes when I got here. It was finally a house for us," she said. "But straight away I knew things weren't what I hoped them to be." Maisie's home is cold. Even with thick jackets and jumpers on, she says you can sometimes see your breath when the temperatures drop at night.