Renters are facing damp outbreaks, pest infestations and dangerous disrepairs needing urgent reform, a leading think tank reveals.
Laying bare the stark crisis in UK housing, a new IPPR North report exposes the “ticking time bomb” of poor quality homes as the cost of energy skyrockets.
IPPR researchers investigated the private rented sector in Greater Manchester, where they found tenants living in poor quality, unsafe accommodation, with fly tipping in gardens and inadequate heating.
Some of the participants in the report spoke of extortionate energy bills due to disrepair and lack of maintenance of their boilers, made worse by the cost of living crisis.
Over 20% of people in some parts of Greater Manchester are already living in fuel poverty - higher than the national average - with tenants facing enormous bills leaving them “exhausted and overwhelmed”.
Over half of rented homes in Greater Manchester fail to meet the Energy Performance Certificate standard of ‘C’, which will become law in 2025.
But the new government requirement could cause an exodus in landlords, the IPPR report warns.
Jonathan Webb, senior research fellow at IPPR North and author of the report, told the Sunday Mirror: "The private rented sector is not working for hundreds of thousands of people. Everyone deserves to live in a safe home.”
Mr Webb said the housing crisis is hitting residents not just in Greater Manchester, but across the country - particularly in the North.
He said: “Money has been sucked out of poor inner city areas and then redistributed to Tory heartlands and cuts in local government really affects the quality of housing.”
The government's Levelling Up White Paper aims to halve the number of non-decent homes by 2030.
But Mr Webb said new Prime Minister Liz Truss must commit to “overseeing a country where homes are safe to live” and ensuring local leaders, such as metro mayors, have the powers and resources they need to level up homes locally.
IPPR researchers have now recommend that an investment model be created in the Greater Manchester area that would benefit both tenants and landlords.
One woman who contributed to the report was forced to raise her children in a house full of damp and mould, with a broken oven and holes in the windows.
Her daughter ended up in hospital with a broken toe after one of the broken drawers in the kitchen fell on her and she now suffers from chronic health problems she believes were caused by the mould.
Mr Webb said poor quality housing has a “massive impact on people's health” and the situation is only going to get worse.
“Tenants have seen health effects particularly on their children,” he said.
“It's so harmful to have kids growing up in poor quality accommodation, where they're freezing cold, or they're having to sleep in a mouldy room - not only are there health impacts, but there are educational repercussions, too. Kids can't concentrate at school because they're so tired, and when they try to do their homework, or try to sleep, they're literally freezing.”
Around one million homes in Greater Manchester are classed as ‘non-decent’, meaning accommodation doesn’t meet the basic legal health and safety standard, isn’t in a reasonable state of repair, doesn’t have reasonably modern facilities and services or has ineffective insulation or heating.
Mrs Webb added: “The new government needs to think really strongly about how it is actually going to help people who live in rented properties.”
A Sunday Mirror campaign earlier this year revealed that some 1.5 million rentals fall below government standards. Treating illness linked to the conditions costs the NHS £1.4billion a year.
