Action urged over Birmingham's mould-ridden homes

A Birmingham resident has accused the city council of housing people in mouldy homes.

Vicky McLaughlin lives in a council house in Bartley Green which has mould throughout, putting the health of her three young children at risk.

The Labour MP for Edgbaston, Preet Kaur Gill, said she was dealing with 160 cases of mould in council homes.

The authority said it regularly inspected its properties for mould and was working with tenants to prevent it.

Ms McLaughlin said her children had asthma, which was being made worse by the mould in her two-bedroom property.

"You're constantly bleaching and it just keeps coming back - it's all the time, you can smell it in the wardrobes, it's on the back of the doors," she said.

Vicky McLaughlin said she was "constantly bleaching" her home to try and remove mould

She was offered another council home, but found it too had mould.

"If they're not liveable, people should not be living in them," she said.

Ms Gill has written to the chief executive of Birmingham City Council in the wake of two-year-old Awaab Ishak's death in Rochdale. He died from a respiratory condition caused by exposure to mould in his family's housing association flat.

She said the issue of mould was "one of the single largest cause of complaints" she received.

Mould was present in many places in Ms McLaughlin's home, including around the windows

"The standard of Birmingham City Council housing often leaves much to be desired and seems to me to be a continual battle with the council's repairs team," she said.

She suggested it would be better to tackle the root of the problem and said "British homes are among the worst insulated, most draughty and leakiest in Europe".

Ms Gill said she would also write to the secretary of state for housing, Michael Gove, to ask what support the government would be providing to local authorities to tackle the issue.

Birmingham City Council said it was spending £27m to improve the thermal efficiency of homes, adding it was "saddened at the tragic death of Awaab Ishak".

"As the largest social landlord in the country, Birmingham City Council regularly inspects its properties for mould and is actively working with our tenants to prevent it," it said.