Nags Head estate residents’ health deteriorates due to mould and bed bugs

Residents of Nags Head estate near Columbia Road protest outside landlord Peabody’s offices for neglecting repairs they say have caused health issues

For over three months, Khadija Siddeka and her three children have been sleeping in their living room. The family’s two bedrooms are practically empty, their clothes are kept in laundry bags and their beds have been stripped back to the mattresses due to a bed bug infestation which Khadija has been battling for the last two years.

Despite the desperate attempts to keep the bed bugs out of her home on The Nags Head, Khadija says her children are still getting bitten and are waking up in red, itchy rashes. The family’s landlord is Peabody Trust, one of the largest housing associations in London which is in charge of over 104,000 homes in London and the Home Counties.

Khadija claims it’s been very hard to get her landlord to come out and treat the bed bugs as she was initially told Peabody doesn’t deal with bed bugs.

With the help of The Nags Head Tenants Association, a group of residents that formed in lockdown after they discovered they were living in similar living conditions, Peabody came out to treat the issue but Khadija says only the beds were treated.

A Peabody spokesperson apologised for the poor conditions and said they are working to fix the immediate problems while looking at long-term investment, including £2 billion in the next few years. They added that some residents have taken up offers to have an independent survey identify issues in their homes.

‘I didn’t know who to ask, I didn’t know if the whole house was meant to be sprayed as bed bugs go through the whole house but they only did the mattresses – it’s not clear, I don’t know how it works,’ she said.

After informing Peabody that her children were still getting bitten, Khadija claims she was told she must wait at least three weeks for the treatment to work before contacting her landlord again.

‘They said wait three weeks and if it doesn’t clear up we’ll come back, in the meantime if we’re still getting rashes we’re just expected to cope with it,’ she explained.

Like many of her neighbours on the estate, Khadija and her family have also been exposed to damp and mould and despite having her walls treated, she believes the problem is still there and that her children’s skin rashes could be down to a mould allergy.

She said: ‘My son has asthma, which I’m guessing is to do with the damp and mould and now we’re all suffering with the symptoms, apart from my husband. We’re all suffering with the same symptoms and it gets worse during the summertime. My son now has to go to my mum’s house because of that condition, it gets worse. I give him a break to go there because it’s a different environment and he gets a bit better.’

Kevin Biderman, his wife Helena Walsh and their daughter have just returned from a decant after their living conditions were making their daughter sick.

The family had problems with damp, mould, insulation and an overfill pipe which Kevin claims wasn’t fitted properly and so every time one of them used the bath, the water would seep into the foundations of their home which gave them a nasty slug infestation.

In lockdown, their daughter developed respiratory problems and couldn’t breathe, and Kevin says at one point the doctors thought it was bronchitis. When they moved their daughter’s wardrobe away from her wall, they were shocked to discover a thick layer of black mould covering the wall.

The family contacted an independent surveyor who came to their home and told them horrifyingly, that their home was unfit for human habitation. Kevin, who is co-chair of the Tenants Association, has accused his landlord of a ‘slapdash approach’ when it comes to repairs and says ‘radical change’ needs to happen within Peabody.

He said: ‘We rented the properties so that they wouldn’t harm our health and that our landlord would look after them to the standard that anyone would expect and that just hasn’t happened. In fact, it’s harmed our daughter’s health since we’ve been here and it’s caused us a massive headache.’

The family have since moved back into their flat though Peabody is still carrying out works to their flat. While they were decanted into a temporary home, Kevin says his daughter’s health improved and she didn’t need to pick up her inhaler once, but the family remain concerned about the future as winter is fast approaching.

Khadija, Kevin and many other residents’ health concerns have been backed up by Medact, a charity which is helping the residents take legal action against Peabody through a group claim, led by Kevin and other residents.

Dr Calum Barnes a member and organiser at Medact, said the housing conditions are ‘significantly damaging’ to the health of Nags Head residents.

He went on to say four out of five households told Medact their housing is contributing to ill health and is causing respiratory problems and mental health issues. He added: ‘This estate is not alone, as health workers we see these same conditions in far too many of our patients, making it undeniable that this neglect is a public health crisis.’

The group claim, which is on a no-win, no-fee basis, is also being supported by London Renters Union’s Tower Hamlets branch. Residents are taking legal action as they want Peabody to be held accountable for the living conditions on the estate, and to get them to ‘properly investigate’ the issues.

Kevin said: ‘Peabody needs to go into remediation and agree things with our lawyer which they just aren’t doing. Either Peabody do that and come to an agreement or we go to court, we’d prefer to come to an agreement because it’s just less hassle for everyone.’

Next door to Kevin is Simon Pearce, who has also just returned from a decant. For nine years, Simon raised concerns about a leak and suffered from mould and damp in his home. He claims he was initially told it was a condensation issue and if he opened his windows it would ‘cure’ the problem.

‘Essentially it was a battle for about nine years to get to where we are today, it was just a constant denial,’ Simon said.

The mould and damp got so bad he was instructed by his doctor to stop washing the walls down because it was affecting his asthma and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), which he developed in 2018.

Since returning to his flat, Simon says Peabody has remedied the mould and damp issues but says the root cause of the problem has not been investigated properly.

He said: ‘[Since the decant] they’ve not put an extractor fan in the kitchen or anything, apparently I’ve got to open the window on a cold winter’s day – that’s their advice, it’s all about culture blaming.

‘What’s the logic of coming here to remedy the cold and damp but not remedy the cause of it? Because it’s just going to keep reoccurring.’

He added: ‘I didn’t use half of the flat for a very long time, it’s my space. It does get you down, you do feel depressed, you do feel anxious. You don’t invite people back.’

Like Simon, Khadija Arafa Hussain-Chowdhury is another resident on the estate who saw her mental health take a toll due to a traumatic fall that happened in January.

The 20-year-old, who has asthma and ligament issues in her knee, suffered a fracture to her foot and has since been diagnosed with agoraphobia due to the fall, causing her anxiety to ‘go through the roof’.

Between January and July, Khadija says she didn’t leave her home once as she was too scared to go outside as it would mean she would have to use the stairs. Any time she does have a panic attack, it can set her asthma off and on one occasion she had to call an ambulance.

She claims the stairs she fell down weren’t fixed for ‘at least a month’ and has accused Peabody of carrying out a ‘quick fix’ to the stairs. Khadija said: ‘[Peabody] has put these laminated pieces of wood over the broken stairs, they’ve done that over several steps and now it shows there are more stairs that are a hazard, which are more than the ones I had fallen down initially.

‘Several neighbours have voiced that these stairs are unsafe for loads of people… we’re now in September and we still haven’t got a proper fixed solution, it’s ridiculous.’

Khadija, who has started Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, added: ‘At the time of the accident I was 19, I’m now 20. I’m in my twenties and I’m a prisoner in my own house because I can’t even look out the window. This happened in January and we’re pretty much towards the end of the year now and [Peabody] still hasn’t done anything.’

Millie Buck, whose partner lives on the estate with his father, says it’s a constant battle to keep their home half decent and Millie herself feels ‘worn out’ with the constant disrepair issues. The family claim there are problems with the flat’s drainage system and their kitchen ceiling regularly suffers from leaks due to a broken water pipe in an upstairs flat.

Millie said: ‘[Peabody] say the damp is our problem, the paint has bubbles and cracks on the walls, I just don’t know what to do with the place, it’s a constant battle to keep this place half decent. When the water pours through the ceiling, sometimes I think it’s a matter of time before that whole section falls down.’

She added: ‘I’ve got really bad asthma, and even with my very heavy steroid inhaler, I still suffer. I have to take the steroid inhaler and use it as a reliever every morning when I wake up which is crazy to me. Normally, if I’m at my own flat I take my steroid inhaler once every night and I don’t have to use it at all as a reliever but in this house, I have to use it as a reliever because I wake up and I can’t breathe.’

One good thing that has come out of all of this, Kevin says, is the community who have come together during a difficult time. Last week, Kevin and other residents joined together and protested outside Peabody’s head offices in Borough.

Speaking through a megaphone, Kevin said: ‘The mould in our properties is making us ill, it’s not just that, it’s all of the other things that Peabody doesn’t fix. The leaks, the pests and mice and all these different things they’re all affecting residents and tenants in so many difficult ways.’

Medact and London Renters Union were also there along with tenants living on the Peabody-run Lesnes estate in Thamesmead, which has been threatened with demolition.

A spokesperson for the London Renters Union said: ‘This housing association, like most housing associations, is increasingly acting like a private developer, which has led to disrepair, systemic mismanagement, chronic evictions for demolition and overall neglect of their ‘assets’.

‘In contrast, we see housing as homes, not financial assets. Despite Peabody’s claim to be not-for-profit, they clearly are not acting in the interest of the public. Many of the Peabody tenants we organise with have been made sick from mould and missing insulation.’

Dr Barnes from Medact said: ‘To prevent further harm, Peabody must commit to quick repairs and insulation of the residents’ homes, and our government must ensure that standards are enforced, to put the people’s right to health ahead of the bottom lines of these massive housing associations and private landlords.’

A spokesperson for Peabody said: ‘We’re really sorry for the poor conditions in some of the homes and are working with each of these residents to address their individual issues as well as working to improve the overall condition of the estate.

We’re working hard to fix the immediate problems while looking at longer-term investment. Improvements have already been made to the exteriors of two buildings. We have a local repairs team based on the estate twice a week so residents can get things done more easily.’

The spokesperson said around a third of Nags Head residents have taken up the offer of a survey by a specialist company to address any issues in their homes. They said Peabody is carrying out the recommended work and continuing to monitor any problems so the repairs team can act quickly where needed.

They added: ‘We are meeting with residents regularly and, as well as the repairs team, have a neighbourhood manager, repairs supervisor and resident liaison officer at the estate. It’s our priority to ensure all residents’ homes are safe and well maintained.’

The spokesperson said that last year more than £370 million was spent on looking after residents’ homes and Peabody plans to spend a further £2 billion over the next few years.

They added: ‘We’re carrying out more than 1,000 proactive home inspections each month and have a dedicated damp and mould team.’

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