Leaks, mould and faulty lifts: Life inside a council tower block where residents say they’ve been abandoned

As the door opens into Fazz Begum’s council flat, the first thing you see is the damp.

An entire wall has been damaged by a persistent leak that has led to mould spreading through the flat. She opens a cupboard in her daughter’s bedroom to reveal wallpaper peeling where black mould has been growing.

“We’re sick,” she tells Sky News. “I have a 10-year-old that’s got breathing problems.”

It has been like this for eight years.

Life in a mouldy home is all her daughters, Anzish, 10, and Aleeza, nine, can remember. Gesturing to the large patch of damp, Fazz says “they have grown up watching this grow too”.

“Do you know how sad that is?” she asks.

They moved into this council flat in 2016 and she says the leak began the day after they moved in. She has repeatedly begged the council to fix it but says: “They do come, take a picture and they leave. It’s like nothing is being solved for me and my kids. No one’s helping us.

“I feel like something bad has to happen to me and my two girls. Then I feel like maybe they will take this seriously. They want us to live in hell and misery.”

They live in Waltham Forest, an area of east London with one of the longest waiting lists for council housing in the country.

The severe shortage of housing means people like Fazz have no other options.

“I’ve got two girls. Where am I going to go?” she says.

Broken-down, high-rise lifts

The government has committed to the “biggest growth in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation“, but the experience of Fazz and others who live in her tower block raises questions about the suitability of existing social homes.

NHS worker Andrea, who lives on the 11th floor, says “it’s not fit for purpose, none of it is”. She needs a crutch to walk and is registered disabled.

“The lifts – it’s the biggest nightmare,” she says, describing how they break down on a regular basis.

“I’ve had to spend a couple of nights not here because I couldn’t get in.”

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Ahmed, 21, has lived in the block with his family all his life and says residents’ concerns are ignored.

“I don’t think it’s fair how they treat us,” he says. “We’ve been living like this for years.”

For a year he had to deal with water pouring through his ceiling on a regular basis. Each time he would call the council who would come and turn off the electricity.

“Obviously the water going into the switch is just dangerous,” he says.

But once they were without power they would then have to “wait ages” – sometimes three weeks at a time – for someone to come over and look at the actual problem.

His concern now is the cold.

‘We are left to freeze’

Like thousands of other high-rise buildings, their tower block has had to have flammable cladding removed since new regulations were brought in following the Grenfell Tower fire.

Work to remove cladding from their building and one next door took place earlier this year. However, it has not been replaced so they have been left without insulation.

“It’s freezing,” says Ahmed. “Throughout Christmas, we are literally left to freeze.”

He’s worried about what he describes as the “scariest winter we’re going to have to go through living in these buildings”.

Balcony walls that contained flammable material have also been removed. In some flats, they have been replaced by flimsy barriers. Steve, who lives on the fifth floor points to a gap beneath the barrier, describing the balcony as a “no-go” area for his children now.

Waltham Forest Council told Sky News the work is being done “in a safe manner”. It was unable to say when the buildings will be re-insulated.

It said “the council responds in a timely manner to any concerns raised”, adding “all lifts are currently operational”.

The council says it apologises for Ms Begum’s experience and will arrange an urgent inspection of her property.