Struggling families 'trapped' in homes 'plagued by damp and rats in floor and walls'

dailystar.co.uk:

families in one street have said their homes are plagued by rats and filled with damp. Anthony Bleakley, who lives in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, with his family-of-six in a housing association home has said the tatty house is squalid and that wallpaper he had put up "six months ago" just "falls off" the living room wall.The Bleakley family has also complained of a hole below the walls of the Cedar Avenues home.Anthony said: "We took up the laminate to show more evidence [of the damp].

I was standing on it and I just fell through."Underneath the floorboards, Anthony claims he can seen a "pool of water", the Manchester Evening News reports.

He said: "A lot of the water has gone now but there still is some. When it rains it fills up a lot. I'm a groundworker by trade so I know what's gone on."Anthony, who has lived in the house for three years, and his partner for six, says he currently covers up the hole in the floor with a playhouse.

According to Matthew Condrad, director of Tenant Claim and representing Andrew's family, the rising damp is down to a failure with the damp proof courses.Mr Condrad claims the damp proofing, which has a lifespan of 25 years, has now expired.Anthony fears for two of his asthmatic children whenever "it rains and it gets damp," with the NHS saying that damp and mould can affect people's health.Natalie Lake, another resident at Cedar Avenue, fears for three-year-old daughter Jorja-Maria's health after she was also diagnosed with asthma.