Cladding Crisis: What effect is the problem having on children?

Families living in unsafe buildings because of insufficient fire-safety regulations face the double worry of bankruptcy and their children not being safe in their own home.

Thousands of families in the region face bills of up to £100,000 to make their properties safe from the type of flammable cladding that led to the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 and other defects.

It means many families are living in cramped apartments that they are unable to sell, earlier this week Boris Johnson said that leaseholders wouldn't have to front the costs but support is yet to materialise.

Ministers have insisted they are working at "pace" to solve the issue but families who are trapped in unsafe buildings have said they are seeing the impact it is having on their children's mental health.

Michael McClatchey, who lives in Manchester, said that recent issues with a fire alarm in his building had left his 3 year old daughter "visibly shaking".

The architect and TV Presenter George Clarke has a terraced house right next to Grenfell Tower and said what he witnessed that night 'was the worst day of his life'. He's been in regular touch with an apartment owners group, Manchester Cladiators who are campaigning on behalf of residents in around one hundred unsafe buildings across the North West.

Tonight he's talking to families in Manchester and Runcorn in an event called "Children's Mental Health Week, with Mini Cladiators" , the forgotten victims of the Cladding scandal.

Support on helping children with their mental health can be found here.