Peckham MP Harriet Harman attacks housing association after woman lay dead on sofa for two years

Tap above to watch video report by Rags Martel

Peckham MP Harriet Harman accused a housing association of failing to listen worried tenants after the skeleton of a woman who lay dead for two years was found on a sofa.

Neighbours said they repeatedly alerted authorities after finding maggots and flies in the block of flats which became filled with a smell of rotting meat.

Her post box was overflowing and, as Storm Eunice swept over London, her balcony door swang violently.

Harriet Harman said her tragic death raised many questions that needed to be answered.

"I think there should be an inquiry because look at what's happened here," Ms Harman said.

"You've got a situation where a woman has died alone in her flat and her body has not been discovered for months, if not years. "This is despite neighbours expressing concern and contacting the housing association Peabody.

"So, it's a small block, 20 flats, and the neighbours knew each other and they knew something was wrong and they were raising concerns and nothing was done. "So I think questions have to be answered.

"None of us want to think that we're in the situation where that could happen, where a woman could lay undiscovered, dead in her flat," she added.

Neighbour Ayesha Smith said residents complained about the smell coming from the flat dozens of times to housing association Peabody.

She had to block her door off with a towel because the smell was so bad.

Harriet Harman said tenants were simply being ignored.

"I think it raises serious questions - those tenants were raising serious concerns and they were not being listened to," Ms Harman said.

"So I think there's a question mark about Peabody's attitude to their tenants. But there's also a question mark about Peabody's processes because the gas was turned off in March 2020.

"Either they have turned off the gas because they thought she was no longer living there in which case why did they not repossess the flat to re-let it - why would they leave it empty?

"But if they thought she was still alive why did they turn off the gas? I think their processes were wrong as well and everybody is very dismayed about this.

"They don't ever want anything like this to happen again and they want the attitudes that lay behind it and the processes that so clearly failed - they want them sorted," she added.

Housing association Peabody said they were "incredibly upset" by what has happened, adding: "Quite rightly everyone wants answers and so do we.

"No one should have been left like this, we must understand what went wrong so that this never happens again.

"We had listened and responded to the neighbours reports, repeatedly trying to make contact, and had called the police back in October 2020 who reported everything was fine.

"Clearly, we didn’t do enough and we need to understand how and why this happened. We’re carrying out a full investigation, and will involve the police, authorities, our teams and residents.

"We will leave no stone unturned so that we can learn from this."