DAMP, MOULD AND RATS LEAVE FAMILY 'SCARED' IN HOME
"I don't feel happy and I don't feel safe at home. My house has damp, mould, rats and cockroaches."
Sarah, who has three children and did not want to give her real name, told the BBC about the reality of raising a family in poor quality accommodation.
She is one of many renters that the charity People's Health Trust says need more help from the next government.
The organisation has called on the party that wins the general election to do more to tackle housing inequalities.
Sarah and her children, all aged under 10, have lived in their terraced house in Leeds for eight years, but she is desperate to move.
She says the property, in the suburb of Harehills, is infested with damp, with tell-tale black marks on her kitchen ceiling, the window sill in the living room and in an upstairs bedroom.
She has asthma, suffers from chest infections and worries about the effect the mould is having on her family's health.
She says her landlord does "nothing" to combat the damp, which keeps returning after she has cleaned the mould away. She has even re-painted the house herself.
The rats in the house are brazen, and have chewed the stair carpet and eaten food from the kitchen. The landlord has not replaced the carpet or arranged for pest control measures.
The family of four all sleep in the same room because the children are scared of the noise the rats make.
Sarah said: "My landlord, he didn't help me. The situation isn't safe for me or my children. I need another house that is safe and clean."
Sarah has stayed in the privately rented accommodation because she has spent seven years on the waiting list for council housing. She is currently in priority band B.
There are more than 27,000 households on the Leeds Homes Register, with 5,000 of them in the highest priority band A. Even these families face an average wait of two years for a property, says Leeds City Council.
Poor housing 'common'
Bhranti Naik is a project lead for Leeds Muslim Forum, which works with families in the city who need assistance with housing and other issues.
She said: "We hear a lot of these stories of housing that is substandard and there is a lot of damp, there is a lot of mould, there are pests. These are all issues that need to be resolved sooner rather than later."
She believes that tenants are trapped in such situations because demand for housing outweighs supply, and because they fear being evicted if they complain to their landlord.
National campaign group the People's Health Trust says Yorkshire and the Humber has the worst housing conditions in England, with almost 40% of private rental homes failing to meet recognised standards.
The charity's chief executive, John Hume, believes as many as 160,000 families in the region are in similar situations to Sarah's.
He said: "Having good housing is a fundamental building block of health. Damp and mould produces spores and toxic substances which can result in really serious respiratory conditions."
Mr Hume says the People's Health Trust wants the next party in power to address "no-fault evictions" and protect tenants who are afraid to complain about their living conditions.
The charity wants more regulation of standards in the private sector, and funding for local councils to enforce legislation.
Mr Hume added: "Without tiers of legislation and enforcement, you’re not going to see things change for people like Sarah, and we’re going to see another generation of people whose health is blighted by this."
The policies
The major parties have all pledged to reform the rental market and give more protection to tenants.
Labour want to abolish "no fault" evictions and extend Awaab's Law, which brought in timescales for property repairs in social housing following the death of Awaab Ishak, to the private sector.
The Conservatives want to pass a Renters Reform Bill, and the Liberal Democrats plan to extend the length of tenancies and introduce controls on rent increases.
The Green Party supports long-term leases and rent controls so that local authorities can intervene in unaffordable property markets.
Reform UK say they will boost the appeals and enforcement process for tenants with complaints, and the Yorkshire Party has called for a regulated "good landlord" system.
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