Penryn mother turns to Tiktok saying council flat is too 'mouldy' and 'dangerous' to live in

  • Watch Paige show reporter Charlotte Gay around her flat.


A mother from Penryn has turned to TikTok to share her despair at the state of her council flat.

Paige Winsper and her seven-year old daughter are now currently living in a hotel because she says the mould and damp have been making them ill.

Filming around her home show, she showed the damp and potentially dangerous conditions that started inside her bathroom and have spread into the communal corridor.

"Sometimes it's coming right under the flooring, we stopped using the bath because we was worried [sic] that the bath was actually draining right under the floor into the concrete."

Cornwall Housing has apologised and said it's working to address the issues. 

Paige has taken medication to combat the allergic reaction she had to the black mould spores. Credit: ITV News

Paige said the problem started with a leak behind the bath but now there is "water in the electric box" that has produced "black mould all up and down the wall" and "it's actually making us ill."

It led to the 26-year-old waking up earlier this week with an allergic reaction around one eye, which her doctor has said is likely caused by the spores from the black mould.

"I look like a bee had stung me. It was so itchy. I've got big nails on all I wanted to do was just claw the eye out," Paige said.

She first reported the water damage to her housing provider in November 2021, and says after months of waiting she believes turning to social media was her only way of being noticed.

"So many people they phone for months and months and you don't get listened to. But you can go on one social media platform and get enough influencers who have got enough followers and then your voice gets heard. So I just thought I'd try it. And it just absolutely blew off because I'm not the only one who's been treated this unfairly."

Cllr Jayne Kirkham says there are hundreds of people in Falmouth living in housing in dire need of repair. Credit: ITV News

Cllr Jayne Kirkham has said she has had hundreds of people get in touch with her about their potentially dangerous housing conditions after the news of two-year-old Awaab Ishak, who died after “chronic exposure to harmful mould” in his family's flat in Rochdale.

She said there's a pattern in social and private housing where repairs are not getting done.

"It's completely wrong and it's wrong that Paige was complaining about this, I understand, for a good year, and that shouldn't be the case.

"Housing providers have been struggling and they haven't got enough money, but you can't just leave people in these circumstances for long periods of time.

"Cornwall Housing have set up an arm's length company to employ their own traders. Hopefully that will make things a bit better. We'll wait and see," Jayne added.

Responding to the conditions Paige has been living in Cornwall Housing told ITV News: “The health and safety of our tenants is our priority.

"We are working with the tenant and our repairs team to urgently address the issues affecting the property, and apologise that the situation has taken longer than it should have to resolve.

"Any Cornwall Housing tenants concerned about issues in their homes can contact the team on 0300 1234 161."