Social surveys that were undertaken a little over a century
ago picked up on the mouldy, damp and poorly ventilated homes in some parts of
the country that were wreaking havoc on their tenants’ health and wellbeing.
Fast forward to 2016 and still there are parts of Birkenhead
in which parents are having to throw out their children’s toys and clothes
because they are caked in mould, while the bathroom light cannot be switched on
because there is water dripping through the ceiling. For others a broken
storage heater meant spending Christmas Day in the cold.
These are just some of the horrors that have been reported
to me in recent weeks. Even after each fault was reported to the relevant
housing association – on this occasion, Liverpool Housing Trust – no action was
taken.
Even though the workmen who were assigned to assess the
condition of each property agreed on the need for essential repair work, again
it seems their reports were not acted on.
Only after I wrote to the housing association last week did
there seem to be any urgency to deal with these problems. But is this an
acceptable state of affairs for tenants to have to get their MP involved in
order to have urgent repair works seen to?
I asked the housing association to consider allocating a
sufficient sum from its investment budget to prevent housing stock falling into
disrepair. Will it be necessary to make a similar request of Birkenhead’s other
housing associations?